North Korea says it has been practicing to blow up
South Korean seaports and airports with nuclear warheads during its most
recent ballistic missile launches on Tuesday,
the latest sign of Supreme leader Kim Jong Un's anger over attempts by
South Korea and the U.S to contain it's military operations.
North
Korea launched three missiles – two short-range Scuds and one
medium-range Rodong – from a launch site south of the capital Pyongyang
early on Tuesday
morning. They flew about 350 miles across the peninsula to land in the
sea off the east coast.South Korean military officials said they had the
potential to hit even the southern most parts of their country.
According to the North's state media, their Supreme leader Kim Jong-un personally supervised Tuesday's firing of the three ballistic missiles, a
week after South Korea and the United States chose a site in the South
to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile
system to counter threats from the North.
Military
officials from the U.S say the missile test from North Korea is more of
a show of strength and force rather than a test to improve missile
capabilities.
When South Korea and the U.S
chose to deploy the THAAD Military technology in a U.S base in South
Korea, China objected to the move saying it would destabilize the
security balance in the region before North Korea threatened a "physical
response".
The drill carried out on Tuesday
rehearsed “making preemptive strikes at ports and airfields in the
operational theatre in south Korea, where the US imperialists nuclear
war hardware is to be hurled,” the North's official Korean Central News
Agency said.
“Kim Jong Un expressed
great satisfaction over the successful drill,” the KCNA statement said,
and he praised the soldiers for being “fully ready to carry out any
order issued all of a sudden.”
Kim Jong-un, the
third-generation leader of North Korea bears the official title of
“Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army”.
Source: Al Jazeera/ Korean Central News Agency