NUCLEAR DRILLSWhat's Behind North Korea's “Nuclear Attack” Drills?
Pyongyang has carried out a series of unprecedented military drills and threatened to use nuclear weapons in an invasion of South Korea. It’s partly encouraged by closer alliances with Russia and China, experts say.
Pyongyang has managed to increase the already elevated tensions on the Korean Peninsula in recent days with a number of military firsts.
The latest actions by the North Korean regime underlined its burgeoning alliance with Russia, with the anticipated announcement of a summit between the reclusive nation’s leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok, on the Pacific Coast of Russia.
State media reported last week that Kim had overseen military exercises that simulated a “scorched earth” nuclear strike against the South followed by an invasion across the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula and then the occupation of North Korea’s ideological rival.
The North said it had acted as South Korea and the US were plotting a pre-emptive nuclear assault on the North, adding, “The [Korean People’s Army] staged a tactical nuclear strike simulating scorched-earth strikes at major command centers and operational airfields of the [South Korean] military gangsters.”
The drills included the firing of two tactical ballistic missiles from mobile launchers close to Pyongyang.
North Korea’s “Clear Message” to U.S., South Korea
Pyongyang said it was sending a “clear message” to Seoul and Washington, which have recently completed the 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercise that included US nuclear-capable B-1B strategic bombers flying with a fighter escort over the peninsula.
The North insisted that the flights show the US was “moving toward a pre-planned nuclear pre-emptive strike against us.”
Pyongyang followed that exercise up with a “simulated tactical nuclear attack” on Saturday with the launch of two cruise missiles carrying dummy nuclear warheads, state-run media added.
Analysts say that it is clear the North has made great strides in its development of nuclear weapons and long-range missile systems, but it has little chance of successfully invading and occupying the southern half of the peninsula — despite a standing army of 1.3 million service members.
“In the past, the North Koreans invested heavily in artillery and building up their ammunition supplies, but virtually all of that is from the 1940s and 1950s,” said Lance Gatling, a security and aerospace analyst and founder of Tokyo-based Gatling Associates.
“So, while they have a tremendous amount of this stuff and rocket artillery, it is not very precise over long ranges. Also, the ubiquitous intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities of advanced countries have a tremendous impact on any offensive capability they [North Korea] might have,” he told DW.
