• Tension South Korea and the US resume their largest military maneuvers since 2018
  • North Korea launches two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan

North Korea held a "nuclear counterattack" exercise over the weekend in the presence of leader Kim Jong-un with a view to sending an "even more serious warning" to the maneuvers of Seoul and Washington, North Korean media reported on Monday, in a further step in the escalation of tension on the peninsula.

"On March 18 and 19, combined tactical exercises were held to substantially bolster the country's nuclear war and counterattack deterrent," state news agency KCNA reported. The exercise that simulated "a nuclear counterattack by units operating tactical nuclear weapons was conducted in a tense situation in which U.S. and South Korean allied forces frantically intensify their large-scale war drills to invade the People's Republic of Korea (the North's official name) and massively bring U.S. strategic nuclear assets into South Korea." KCNA added.

On Sunday, two Pentagon strategic bombers conducted exercises with U.S. and South Korean fighters over the peninsula in the combined spring Freedom Shield exercises and after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile and another that appeared to be short-range on Sunday on Thursday. "The drill was also aimed at demonstrating our firm will to provide a real war response and send an even more serious warning to the enemy, who is expanding his war drills for aggression," KCNA adds.

North Korea has repeatedly warned that it would give a forceful response to the Freedom Shield exercises, which started on March 13 and will last until March 23.KCNA explained that the two-day maneuvers were divided "into an exercise to manage the nuclear attack control system," which sought to train the units involved to "adopt a nuclear counterattack posture." , and then "a drill to launch a tactical ballistic missile with a simulated nuclear warhead" that was held on Sunday.

The missile, whose launch was detected and notified yesterday by the South Korean army, was launched from North Pyongan, near the space launch center of Sohae (northwest of the country), and "exploded accurately at 800 meters high" coinciding with a simulated target established on the waters of the Yellow Sea. This "once again demonstrates the reliability of the operation of nuclear explosion control devices and detonators installed in the nuclear warhead," the North's state agency said.

According to experts estimated from published launch footage, the missile appears to have been fired from a silo that had been built at the southeastern end of the Sohae space complex. Leader Kim Jong-un, whose photos released by KCNA show him witnessing the exercises with his daughter, said he was very pleased with the results.

In the photographs published by KCNA and also broadcast, as a still image, by the KCTV network, a North Korean officer also appears next to Kim whose face has been purposely blurred so that it is not recognizable. The man also wears a mask and wears sunglasses, in a gesture possibly aimed at preventing him from being identified in order not to be included in lists of individuals subject to financial sanctions for their connection to North Korea's nuclear and missile program.

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