This picture taken on 18 December 2022 and released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on 19 December 2022 shows a rocket carrying an experimental satellite as it is launched from the Sohae Satellite Launch Ground in Tongchang-ri.

North Korea test-fired two strategic cruise missiles from a submarine in a show of force hours before the United States and South Korea were to stage major joint military exercises, state media reported early Monday.

A submarine fired the weapons from waters off the eastern coastal city of Sinpo on Sunday morning, the KCNA news agency said.

The South Korean military said it detected the launch of a single unspecified missile, without giving details, the Yonhap news agency said.

KCNA said the drill was successful, as the missiles hit their designated and unspecified targets in waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.

The launch came hours before South Korea and the United States were set to kick off their largest joint exercises in five years on Monday. Nuclear-armed Pyongyang has warned such drills could be seen as a “declaration of war”.

The KCNA report announcing Sunday’s missile launch said the test firing expressed “the invariable stand” of North Korea to confront a situation in which “the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet forces are getting ever more undisguised in their anti-DPRK military maneuvers.”

DPRK is the acronym for North Korea’s official name.

KCNA said the drill also “verified the current operation posture of the nuclear war deterrence means in different spaces.”

In a separate statement, North Korea’s foreign ministry said the United States was “scheming” to call a UN Security Council meeting on human rights in the reclusive communist state, to coincide with the joint maneuvers.

“The DPRK bitterly denounces the US vicious ‘human rights’ racket as the most intensive expression of its hostile policy toward the DPRK and categorically rejects it,” the ministry said, according to KCNA.

Washington and Seoul have ramped up defence cooperation in the face of growing military and nuclear threats from the North, which has conducted ever more provocative banned weapons tests in recent months.

The US-South Korea exercises, called Freedom Shield, are scheduled to run for at least 10 days from Monday and will focus on the “changing security environment” due to North Korea’s redoubled aggression, the allies said.

‘Real war’

In a rare move, the Seoul military this month revealed that it and Washington special forces were staging “Teak Knife” military exercises — which involve simulating precision strikes on key facilities in North Korea — ahead of Freedom Shield.

All such exercises infuriate North Korea, which views them as rehearsals for an invasion.

It has said its nuclear weapons and missile programmes are for self-defence.

“Pyongyang has military capabilities under development it wants to test anyway and likes to use Washington and Seoul’s cooperation as an excuse,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

Last year, the North declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power and fired a record-breaking number of missiles, with leader Kim Jong Un last week ordering his military to intensify their own drills to prepare for a “real war”.

Washington has repeatedly restated its “ironclad” commitment to defending South Korea, including using the “full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear”.

South Korea, for its part, is eager to reassure its increasingly nervous public about the US commitment to so-called extended deterrence, in which US military assets, including nuclear weapons, serve to prevent attacks on allies.

— AFP

Subscribe
Notify of
1 Comment
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You May Also Like

SVB’s demise: Why didn’t US bank regulators see it coming?

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank highlights the inadequacy of regulatory reforms since the 2008 financial crisis, according to banking experts. The bank’s disproportionate exposure to tech startups, coupled with its rapid growth and vulnerable long-date fixed-interest bonds, were clear potential red flags that regulators missed. Experts point to the easing of US laws enacted after the crisis, which puts more pressure on old-fashioned supervision, as a contributing factor to the oversight failure. The Federal Reserve has announced plans to review the supervision of SVB, and President Joe Biden has promised a “full accounting” of the situation.

Google launches ChatGPT rival in US and UK

Google has invited people in the US and UK to test its AI chatbot, Bard, which can churn out essays, poems or computing code on command. CEO Sundar Pichai said the chatbot had been tested with 80,000 Google employees, and would now be tested with the public as a “first step” before going out to more countries in other languages. Unlike Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, Bard can “access and process information from the real world through Google Search and keep my response consistent with search results”, the bot said.

Thai elections 2023: the PM candidates

The candidates vying for Thailand’s next prime minister include incumbent Prayut Chan-o-Cha, known for his role in the 2014 military coup, Prawit Wongsuwan, the “Rolex general” with a history in the military, Pita Limjaroenrat, a fresh-faced entrepreneur, and Anutin Charnvirakul, the health minister and leader of the Bhumjaithai party, who decriminalized marijuana in 2022.

Taiwan’s TSMC begins mass production of 3nm chips

TAINAN, TAIWAN — Taiwanese tech giant TSMC said Thursday it has started…