SEOUL.- North Korea said on Friday that it had tested a suspected nuclear submarine attack drone in response to South Korea’s joint naval exercises, USA and Japan this week, while continuing to blame its rivals for raising tensions in the region.
The alleged drone test came days after North Korean leader, Kim Jong Undeclared that he would scrap the country’s long-standing goal of peaceful unification with South Korea and rewrite the Constitution to define its southern neighbor as its most hostile foreign adversary.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years. Kim accelerated weapons tests and threatened a nuclear conflict, and the United States and its Asian allies have responded with new joint military maneuvers, which the president describes as rehearsals for an invasion.
The suspected nuclear attack drone, which Pyongyang first tested last year, is part of the wide range of weapons displayed in recent years as Kim expands his arsenal of nuclear-capable weapons. South Korea’s military has insisted that the North has exaggerated the capabilities of the drone, which is supposedly designed to carry out attacks on enemy ships and ports.
The North Korean military said it conducted the test in waters east of the country 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 concluded on Wednesday.
“Our military’s submarine nuclear reaction capability is being perfected and its various maritime and underwater response actions will continue to deter hostile military maneuvers by the US Navy and its allies,” the North Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“We strongly condemn the United States and its acolytes for their reckless acts that seriously threaten the security of the DPRK since the beginning of the year, and we sternly warn them of the catastrophic consequences they will have,” the note added, using the acronym of the country’s official name. , 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 escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorizes the military to carry out preemptive nuclear strikes if the leadership in Pyongyang 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 target US 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 the silence” around 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 division aggravated by Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Source: With information from AP
