North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watched a ballistic missile launch and ordered more nuclear tests to bolster the reclusive nation's attack capabilities, state media reported Friday.
The drill was conducted “above targets in the ports under the enemy control where foreign aggressor forces are involved,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
Pyongyang threatened to launch nuclear strikes on the United States and South Korea this week, as the two countries started their annual joint military drills. The North sees the exercises as preparations for an attack.
The KCNA reported that Kim underscored the need to further develop nuclear weapons in order to prepare “to make nuclear strikes at the enemies from anywhere on the ground, in the air, at sea and underwater.”
Kim also told the military to carry out more nuclear tests “to estimate the destructive power of the newly produced nuclear warheads and other tests to bolster up the nuclear attack capability,” the agency said.
South Korea’s military said the North fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan early Thursday, Yonhap news agency reported.
The South’s joint chief of staff said the military was monitoring the situation and was “prepared to deal with any North Korean provocations," according to Yonhap.
Kim said his country has miniaturized nuclear warheads to fit on ballistic missiles, the KCNA reported Wednesday. The U.N. Security Council has approved sanctions against the North in response to its recent nuclear and missile tests.
North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear weapons test in January, claiming it tested a hydrogen bomb, and fired a long-range rocket over Japanese airspace on Feb. 7 in what was widely condemned as a test of missile technology banned by previous U.N. resolutions.
