North Korea stages tactical nuclear strike drill to protest against allied exercises

SEOUL - North Korea conducted a simulated “scorched-earth” nuclear strike on targets across South Korea, state media reported on Thursday, in reaction to allied exercises that it said amounted to plans for a pre-emptive nuclear attack by the United States.

The state media report spelt out in unusual detail how the North envisions a potential war, including countering any attack by striking the South with nuclear weapons, then sweeping in to occupy its territory.

“The KPA staged a tactical nuclear strike drill simulating scorched-earth strikes at major command centres and operational airfields of the ROK military gangsters on Wednesday night,” the report said, using both the initials of its military force, Korean People’s Army, and South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Wednesday, South Korea's military said, hours after the

US deployed B-1B bombers for allied air drills.

South Korea’s presidential office convened a security meeting after North Korea’s late-night launch, which followed its second failed attempt last week to put its first spy satellite into orbit.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters on Thursday that North Korea’s actions “pose threats to peace and stability of not only our country, but of the region and international community, and cannot be tolerated”.

Japan will intercept North Korea’s missiles if they fly over the country’s territory, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno.

Pyongyang has vowed to try launching a satellite again in October. The US, South Korea and Japan have condemned the space launch as a provocation and violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions banning the North’s use of ballistic missile technology.

The launches late on Wednesday came a day before South Korea and the US were set to wrap up 11 days of combined military drills, which Pyongyang has long denounced as a war rehearsal.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday observed part of an exercise that involved the commanding officers and staff sections of the entire army, aimed at preparing them for an all-out war with the South, according to a report by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The drill simulated repelling a sudden invasion, then launching a counter-attack to occupy “the whole territory of the southern half”, the report said.

The simulation included front-line and strategic reserve artillery forces, plans for forming a front behind the enemy lines, disrupting the entrance of “outside armed forces” into the conflict, as well as “making simultaneous super-intense strikes at the pivotal military command centres, military ports, operational airfields and other important enemy military targets”, according to the KCNA report.

“We strongly condemn Kim Jong Un explicitly revealing his intention for a military attack on us using the annual defensive South Korea-US combined drills as a pretext,” Seoul’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said in a statement.

Mr Kim has been urging his military to step up war preparedness, criticising leaders of the US, South Korea and Japan as “gang bosses” who increase the risk of a nuclear war in the region.

North Korea’s first missile reached an altitude of 50km and flew 350km, while the second one rose as high as 50km and flew 400km, according to Japan’s defence ministry. REUTERS