Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest levels in years.
AP | The North Korean military said it carried out the test in the country’s eastern waters
North Korea said on Friday it tested a suspected nuclear submarine attack drone in response to joint naval exercises by South Korea, the United States and Japan this week, as it continues to blame its rivals for rising tensions in the region.
The alleged drone test came just days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he would cancel the country’s long-standing goal of peaceful unification with South Korea and that the Constitution would be rewritten to define his southern neighbor as its most hostile foreign adversary.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest levels in years. Kim has accelerated weapons tests and threatened nuclear conflict, and the United States and its Asian allies have responded with new joint military maneuvers, which the president describes as dress rehearsals for an invasion.
The alleged nuclear strike drone, which Pyongyang first tested last year, is among a wide array of weapons displayed in recent years as Kim expands his arsenal of nuclear weapons.
South Korea’s military has insisted that the North has exaggerated the capabilities of the drone, supposedly designed to carry out strikes against enemy ships and ports.
The North Korean military said it conducted the test in the country’s eastern waters in response to three days of naval exercises by the United States, South Korea and Japan south of the South Korean island of Jeju, which ended on Wednesday.
“Our military’s underwater nuclear response capability is being refined, and its various maritime and underwater response actions will continue to deter hostile military maneuvers by the U.S. Navy and its allies,” the ministry said in a statement of the North Korean Defense.
“We strongly condemn the United States and its acolytes for their reckless acts that have seriously threatened the security of the DPRK since the beginning of the year, and we sternly warn them of the catastrophic consequences they will have,” the statement added, using the acronym term for the official name of the country. , Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
In recent months, the North has also tested several missiles designed to attack the United States and its allies in Asia, and announced an escalation nuclear doctrine that authorizes the military to carry out pre-emptive nuclear strikes if Pyongyang’s leadership is threatened.
Pyongyang conducted its first ballistic test of 2024 on Sunday, in which state media said it launched a new solid-fuel intermediate-range missile with a hypersonic warhead that could hit U.S. military bases in Japan and Guam.
At an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, Seoul called on the institution to “break its silence” on the North’s escalating missile tests and threats. Russia and China, as permanent members of the Council, have blocked U.S.-led efforts to increase sanctions on Pyongyang in the wake of its latest tests, underscoring a divide worsened by Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
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2024-01-19 17:30:22
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