North Korean state media published these images of the “underwater nuclear system” when the drones were revealed last April
Published January 19, 2024
North Korea says it has carried out a test of its “underwater nuclear weapons system” in response to drills by the US, South Korea and Japan this week.
The underwater drone, which supposedly can carry a nuclear weapon, was tested off the east coast, state media said.
There is no other evidence of the tests being conducted and Seoul had earlier said the North’s descriptions of the drones’ capability were exaggerated.
South Korea called the reported tests a “provocation”.
It “threatens peace on [the] Korean Peninsula and the world,” the South Korea’s defence ministry said, adding: “If North Korea directly provokes us, we will respond in an overwhelming manner following the principle of immediate, strong, and terminal action.”
The North has claimed tests of its “Haeil-5-23” system before, but the latest incident comes as the North has ramped up military action in recent weeks.
On Sunday, it claimed to have deployed a new solid-fuelled intermediate-range ballistic missile.
That followed live-fire drills at the maritime border with South Korea in the first week of January.
Pyongyang leader Kim Jong Un has also been increasingly aggressive in his policy direction and rhetoric – ending several agreements aimed at peace-keeping in recent months.
On Friday, North Korea said it had been provoked by joint drills by Washington, Seoul and Tokyo to carry out a test of its underwater weapons, according to a report by state agency KCNA.
It accused the exercises of “further destabilising the regional situation” and threatening the North’s security.
The US, South Korea and Japan say they have conducted more exercises in the past year as a deterrence response to the increasing frequency of North Korea’s military actions, which include multiple tests of its nuclear ballistic missiles and launches of new weapons. All such actions are in breach of UN sanctions.
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SOURCE: www.bbc.com
RELATED: Commentary: North Korea unlikely to start a war it will lose
North Korea has long used explosive rhetoric in its relationship with South Korea and the US. It now faces a “boy who cried wolf” problem, says Pusan National University’s Robert Kelly.
North Korea launched an intermediate-range solid-fuel ballistic missile on Jan 15, its first known weapons test of 2024. (Photo: KCNA VIA KNS/AFP/STR)
Published January 19, 2024
BUSAN, South Korea: North Korea has lately stepped up its belligerent rhetoric. In recent days, supreme leader Kim Jong Un has said that North Korea sees South Korea as its “principal enemy” and will cease all reunification efforts between the war-divided nations.
This has led to an excited debate about whether the North is moving toward a war-footing given its improving relationship with Russia and China, and the United States’ distraction in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Geopolitics is indeed moving North Korea’s way. Russia is now an outright opponent of the current US-led world order. That has driven it closer to North Korea’s own rejectionist position. The war with Ukraine has militarily weakened Russia, but politically, the conflict is victory for North Korea because Moscow is now politically closer to Pyongyang than at any time since the Cold War.
Similarly, the Russia-Ukraine war has pulled China closer to North Korea. China is not as openly revisionist and anti-American as Russia and North Korea; it still needs American market access to fuel its growth.
But China does not want Russia to lose the war. It has edged closer to Moscow as the war has ground on, slowly tying itself more to Russia’s fate. That in turn ties it closer to North Korea. This may well account for Mr Kim’s greater belligerence, but there is much to suggest war is not in the offing.
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SOURCE: www.channelnewsasia.com
RELATED: Is North Korea Really Getting Ready for a War Against America?
So, what is Kim Jong-un trying to accomplish? Kim apparently has a longer-term plan that could explain his 2024 provocations, nuclear weapon production, and threats of war.
Published January 17, 2024
In late-2023, the South Korean National Intelligence Service warned that North Korea was likely “to engage in unexpected military and cyber provocations” in 2024. Then, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un told his people “to prepare for war with the U.S.” in 2024.
Is Kim planning to escalate his cold war on the United States and its allies to a hot war?
Only if doing so serves the “two consistent missions given to the military by the Kim family regime: preserve the North Korean state’s independent existence against any external power, and provide the means for North Korea to dominate the Korean Peninsula.”
But the United States has no intention of attacking North Korea: It has very little to gain and a lot to lose by engaging in war with North Korea. And it has made this attitude abundantly clear for decades by both saying so directly and avoiding potentially escalatory reactions to North Korean military attacks and provocations, fearing North Korean escalation.
So, what is Kim Jong-un trying to accomplish? Kim apparently has a longer-term plan that could explain his 2024 provocations, nuclear weapon production, and threats of war. Several years ago a leaked North Korean document for training senior military personnel described the North Korean plan’s objectives:
The dear supreme commander [Kim] will dominate the world with the nuclear weapons, will make the U.S. apologize and compensate us for decades of bullying our people, and will declare to the entire world that the world’s powerful order will be reshaped by the Juche-Korea, not the United States.
Yes, these objectives sound extreme. How might Kim try to achieve these long-term objectives?
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SOURCE: www.nationalinterest.org
