As US warns over nukes North Korea fires missiles toward sea

 As the U.S. military warned the North that the use of nuclear weapons “will result in the end of that regime, on Friday North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea in its first ballistic weapons launches in two weeks”.  

In a statement Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that from the North’s eastern coastal Tongchuan area around midday on Friday South Korea’s military detected the two launches. 

South Korea’s military has boosted its surveillance posture and the United States maintains readiness amid close coordination, it said.

The U.S. Indo Pacific Command said To the United States or its allies the launches did not pose an immediate threat but highlighted the “destabilizing impact” of North Korea’s illicit nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Since Oct. 14 the North’s first ballistic missile tests, the back-to-back launches, came on the final day of South Korea’s annual 12-day “Hoguk” field exercises, which also involved an unspecified number of U.S. troops this year. To conduct a large-scale training as well next week, South Korean and U.S. air forces plan.

As practice for launching an attack on the North, North Korea sees such regular drills by Seoul and Washington, though the allies say their exercises are defensive in nature.

To run from Monday to Friday and involve about 140 South Korean warplanes and about 100 U.S. aircraft next week’s “Vigilant Storm” aerial drills. Earlier Friday South Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the planes include sophisticated fighter jets like the F-35 from both nations.

Since late September, in what it called simulated tests of tactical nuclear weapons systems designed to attack South Korea and U.S. targets North Korea has launched a barrage of missiles toward the sea. 

North Korea says its testing activities were meant to issue a warning amid a series of South Korea-U.S. military drills. As a chance to test new weapons systems, some experts say Pyongyang has also used its rivals’ drills, boosted its nuclear capability and increased its leverage in future dealings with Washington and Seoul.

For the North’s Friday launches Tongchon, the launch site, is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) away from the inter-Korean border. The area was apparently closer to South Korea than any other missile launch site North Korea has used so far this year.

South Korea and the United States have strongly warned North Korea against using its nuclear weapons preemptively.

Against the United States or its allies and partners any nuclear attack by North Korea “will result in the end of that regime”, the Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy report issued on Thursday stated. 

The report said that “There is no scenario in which the Kim regime could employ nuclear weapons and survive”. Including nuclear deterrence, integrated air and missile defenses, and close coordination and interoperability with South Korea, the Pentagon said it will continue to deter North Korean attacks through “forward posture”.

To defend its allies South Korea and Japan during a visit to Tokyo on Tuesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman reiterated that the United States would fully use its military capabilities, “including nuclear”.

By conducting its first nuclear test since 2017 there are concerns that the North could up the ante in the coming weeks.

Chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said on Thursday that North Korea’s new nuclear test explosion “would be yet another confirmation of a program in a way that is incredibly concerning which is moving full steam ahead”. 

For a new test he said the U.N. agency has been observing preparations, but gave no indication of whether an atomic blast is imminent which would be the North’s seventh overall. 

In inter-Korean maritime buffer zones that the two Koreas established in 2018 in recent days, to reduce frontline military tensions North Korea has also fired hundreds of shells. The artillery firings were in reaction to South Korea live-fire exercises at land border areas, North Korea has said.

As they accused each other of violating the boundary, on Monday, the rival Koreas exchanged warning shots along their disputed western sea boundary, a scene of past bloodshed and naval battles.