2024-04-23 11:06:00
Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — North Korea said it tested a new nuclear weapons command and control system on Monday, launching projectiles carrying simulated nuclear warheads from multiple rocket launcher units.
Leader Kim Jong Un led the drill, which simulated a nuclear counterattack, according to a report by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), after what he claimed were “extremely provocative and aggressive” annual joint air force exercises. carried out by the United States and South Korea.
According to analysts, North Korea has previously tested the rocket launcher system and a simulated nuclear counterattack, but KCNA said Monday’s exercise was the first time the “Haekbangashoe” command and control system—or detonator—was used. nuclear—demonstrating what he claimed was an ability to change rocket launchers from conventional to nuclear weapons.
“They’re thinking about command and control. These are practical questions about how an order should be transmitted from Kim, through the chain of command, to the launch units,” said Jeffrey Lewis, an analyst at the James Martin Center for Nuclear Studies. Non-Proliferation.
Nuclear counterattack drill with rockets at an undisclosed location in North Korea on April 22, 2024, according to the North Korean government. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by North Korea. (Credit: KCNA/AP)
Joseph Dempsey, a research associate for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the nuclear counterstrike drill showed “a desire to show greater credibility and capability in the nuclear forces domain and posture beyond the simple demonstration of missile launch systems”.
But he said it was difficult to determine whether Monday’s exercise showed anything new.
“The maturity of this command and control system remains very difficult to assess,” Dempsey added.
Since conducting its first nuclear test more than a decade ago, North Korea has advanced its weapons capabilities, with ambitions to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to fit on a long-range missile.
Kim stepped up these efforts in 2022, vowing to develop nuclear weapons at the “highest possible” speed, passing a new law declaring North Korea a nuclear weapons state and saying there could be no negotiations on denuclearization.
Although the regime’s true capabilities have not been independently verified, a 2017 report by the US Defense Intelligence Agency concluded that North Korea had likely achieved its key goal of miniaturization.
According to experts, North Korea has likely already manufactured a small arsenal of nuclear warheads, but it has not yet been demonstrated whether it has been able to make them small and light enough to mount on a missile.
Images provided by North Korea on Monday showed four rockets being launched, and KCNA said they hit targets on an island 352 kilometers away.
On Monday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North had fired multiple short-range missiles into the waters off the peninsula’s east coast.
Kim said the exercise helped prepare North Korea’s nuclear forces for “their important mission of deterring war and taking the initiative in war,” according to the KCNA report.
The Kim regime has tested a number of weapons in recent months, including long range artillery which has the South Korean capital of Seoul within its reach, a hypersonic glide vehiclewhich could theoretically carry a nuclear warhead beyond the air defenses of South Korea and the US, and a intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the continental United States.
Fighter jets lined up during the joint US-South Korea exercise. (Credit: South Korean Ministry of Defense)
Meanwhile, Seoul and Washington have held frequent military exercises of their own, the latest of which was the two-week Korea Flying Training 2024, which began on April 12.
So far it has had about 100 combat aircraft from the two allies, including F-35 stealth fighters from both.
According to the KCNA report, the US-South Korea exercise has “incited extreme war fever” and cannot be classified as defense or deterrence.
A U.S. Air Force news release called it a critical training event to “protect and defend the U.S., its allies, and partner interests at any given time.”
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