<Anchor>
North Korea, which has been provoking every day, poured out a bomb on the 8th.
They claimed that their missile launch was a 'measure of self-defense' and that the joint South Korea-US exercise was a 'military bravado'.
Kim Jong-un has not appeared in public for nearly a month.
Reporter Bae Jun-woo on the sidewalk.
<Reporter> When
the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Reagan turned around and the unprecedented two weeks of unparalleled South Korea-US joint maritime exercises took place, North Korea poured out fierce criticism.
Early this morning, the Ministry of National Defense joined immediately after opening the first gunshot of the recent successive missile test launches in the name of a spokesperson for the National Aviation Administration as "normal and planned self-defense measures."
He criticized the Reagan's re-entry into the East Sea as "military bluff," and suggested the possibility of further provocations, saying, "We are seriously looking at the development of the current situation."
North Korean propaganda media were also mobilized.
"We are by no means surprised that we take in such a thing as an American aircraft carrier," or "Yoon Seok-yeol's traitorous gang dreaming of denuclearization."
North Korea is expected to carry out even a submarine-launched ballistic missile provocation this week, and it seems that it has chosen a horse bomb to closely monitor US nuclear-powered submarines participating in South Korea-US exercises.
[Park Won-gon/Professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University: (North Korea's) political purpose is very clear that it cannot deter North Korea's nuclear weapons, and in the end, it sends a consistent message to recognize North Korea as a nuclear power...
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Amid the ongoing confrontation over the Korean Peninsula, General Secretary Kim Jong-un has not appeared in public for the 28th day, drawing attention to the background.
(Video editing: Kim Jong-mi, CG: Lee Jong-jeong)