North Korea fired four missiles and issued a warning to the US and South Korea

North Korea announced on Friday the launch of four strategic cruise missiles and warned of the increase in joint military exercises between Washington and Seoul”can be seen as a declaration of war“.

This statement came shortly after the two allied countries reported a “drill” exercise at the Pentagon on how to respond to a possible nuclear attack by Pyongyang.

The multiplication of weapons tests like those of this Friday by the hermetic Asian country raises fears of a possible nuclear test which would be the first since 2017.

The official North Korean news agency KCNA indicated that its military had fired four Hwasal-2 missiles that traveled 2,000 kilometers before impacting “precisely” in the Sea of ​​Japan.

According to the KCNA, “the launches once again demonstrated the military position of North Korea’s nuclear combat forces, “capable of responding to hostile forces”.

The South Korean Defense Ministry has indicated that the data announced by Pyongyang differ from what its surveillance services and the Americans have found.

Subject to multiple UN sanctions, North Korea is not prohibited from firing cruise missiles, but it did launch several banned projectiles last week that drew condemnation from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Among these, it launched an ICBM which fell within Japan’s exclusive economic zone and which, according to Pyongyang, would have demonstrated its ability to perform a “fatal nuclear counterstrike on hostile forces.

Guterres called these actions “provocative”, but North Korea countered that his statements were “unfair and unbalanced” because they disregarded its right to self-defense.

The maneuvers of the United States and South Korea

In parallel with the escalation of weapons tests by Pyongyang, the United States and South Korea increased their military maneuvers and redeployed US strategic assets in the region.

South Korea is trying to reassure its increasingly nervous public about the US commitment to so-called enhanced deterrence, in which US assets, including nuclear weapons, serve to prevent attacks against allies.

Seoul has no nuclear weapons and maintains its official commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, even as calls are growing at home to consider acquiring its own nuclear weapons.

This strategy is part of the exercises held at the Pentagon, which focused on “the possible options for responding to the use of nuclear weapons“From North Korea.

However, the communist regime is furious with these exercises which it interprets as a dress rehearsal for an invasion.

After the latest exercise was announced, the hermetic country released a statement assuring that the “hostile and provocative practices” of the United States “can be seen as a declaration of war”.

“The only way to avoid the vicious circle of escalation of military tension (…) is for the United States to show a clear and practical position of abandon its commitment to deploy strategic assets“and suspend joint maneuvers,” he added.

Relations between the two Koreas are at their worst in decades, following the inauguration of a hardline supporter of Seoul, Yoon Suk-yeol, and repeated weapons tests by the North.

Last year, the communist regime carried out a record number of missile launches and declared North Korea’s nuclear status “irreversible”..

Additionally, Kim has called for an “exponential” increase in weapons production, including tactical nuclear weapons.

South Korea’s unification ministry has urged its northern neighbor to direct its defense spending to feed a starving population.

The cost of the three newly launched missiles “is enough to buy 100,000 tons of food for two to three million vulnerable people for about five months,” said Lee Hyo-jung, the ministry’s deputy spokesman.

Source: AFP