IANS | 23 Apr, 2024
North Korea will face the end of its regime if it attempts to use
nuclear weapons, the South Korean defense ministry warned on Tuesday,
after the former said it conducted rocket drills simulating a nuclear
counterattack.
North Korea's state media said leader Kim Jong-un
on Monday guided a tactical drill simulating a nuclear counterattack
involving super-large multiple rocket launchers against enemy targets,
Yonhap news agency reported.
"If North Korea attempts to use
weapons, it will face an immediate, overwhelming and decisive response
from the South Korea-US alliance, and the North Korean regime will face
its end," ministry spokesperson Jeon Ha-kyu said in a regular press
briefing.
Jeon said North Korea's continued provocations would
only strengthen South Korea's military capabilities and US extended
deterrence, and their trilateral security cooperation involving Japan.
Extended
deterrence refers to America's commitment to using the full range of
its military capabilities, including nuclear, to defend its ally. The
allies have been pursuing an integrated form of extended deterrence with
Seoul leveraging its high-tech conventional military capabilities.
The
Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the North's latest missile tests
appear to be "a show of force" against the ongoing military drills
between Seoul and Washington as well as demonstrating its capabilities
in lieu of its delayed spy satellite launch and arms sales abroad.
The
South Korean military said earlier North Korea appears to be making
preparations for its next launch of a spy satellite, although there are
no signs of an imminent launch.
JCS spokesperson Lee Sung-jun
evaluated North Korea's claim of a nuclear attack capability as
"exaggerated" and the South Korean military is ready to detect and shoot
down its ballistic missiles.
"North Korea is known to have not
yet concluded its experiments with small tactical nuclear weapons," Lee
said during the briefing.
The North's super-large multiple rocket
launch system is classified as a short-range missile that could put the
entire South Korean territory within range. Pyongyang has claimed a
tactical nuclear warhead could be mounted on such a weapon.
The
North said Monday's missiles accurately hit the target island within a
352-kilometer range, which is enough to hit South Korea's Gyeryongdae
military headquarters, 160 kilometers south of Seoul, and an air base in
Gunsan on the southwestern coast, where the joint aerial drills have
been underway.
On Tuesday, JCS Chairman Adm. Kim Myung-soo visited
the 707th Special Mission Group, an elite counter-terrorism unit under
the Special Warfare Command, to review its military readiness.
Kim
highlighted the special force's role in eliminating the enemy's
leadership in covert operations during a conflict and called for
heightened vigilance against North Korean threats.