North Korea said this week that its recent missile tests included “tactical nuclear” exercises to simulate an attack on the South.
Wednesday’s test “means that the North is operating with a tactical nuclear capability in cruise missiles, which are more difficult to detect because of their low-altitude flight,” Hong Min of the Korea National Unification Institute told AFP.
“Endless Development”
Following Wednesday’s tests, Kim said North Korea should “expand the operational sphere of strategic nuclear forces.”
“Kim Jong Un stressed that we should focus all efforts on the endless and accelerated development of the national armed forces for nuclear combat,” KCNA said.
For Kim, obtaining tactical nuclear weapons – smaller and lighter, designed for use on the battlefield – is a priority raised at a Communist Party congress in January 2021.
The country revised its nuclear laws in September to allow preemptive strikes, and Kim declared North Korea an “irreversible” nuclear power, closing the door to negotiations over its arsenal.
Since then, Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have stepped up joint military exercises, including the deployment of a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that has angered Pyongyang, which sees such exercises as an invasion rehearsal.
In response, North Korean army units involved “in the tactical nuclear weapons operation carried out exercises from September 25 to October 9 to check and assess the nuclear war deterrence and counterattack capability,” the North Korean agency said.
The report also indicates that the North Korean missile that flew over Japan on October 4 and triggered alarm in that country was a “new type of intermediate-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile.”