North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged further shows of his nuclear capabilities to deter the U.S., after two weeks of military drills in which he claimed to launch a new ballistic missile and demonstrate tactical atomic strikes.
Kim described a series of exercises since Sept. 25, which included the first missile fired over Japan in five years, as a “severe warning” to the U.S. and its allies, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Monday. The drills included simulated nuclear strikes on airports in South Korea and rocket attacks on seaports, the report said, describing the moves as responses to U.S.-led naval exercises.
The weapon that was fired over Japan into the Western Pacific on Oct. 4 was a “new-type ground-to-ground intermediate-range ballistic missile,” KCNA said.
