North Korean leader Kim Jong Un witnessed an exercise involving massive extra-large multiple rocket launchers, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday.
Pictures published by state media showed Kim, dressed in a black leather jacket, watching a missile exercise with his generals. In one image, he appeared to be cheering as he celebrated the apparent success of the test with a fist punch in the air.
Massive shells of ultra-large multiple rocket launchers fired on Monday from the guns’ lava-sharp barrels flew toward their targets with a blaze of “enemy annihilation”.
Kim praised his armed forces and said it was necessary to show neighbouring countries that in the event of armed conflict or war, they would not be able to avoid catastrophic consequences, the news agency reported. Kim was quoted as saying by the news agency:
“In the future, the destructive offensive means possessed by our army should more thoroughly fulfil their missions to block and suppress the possibility of war with the constant perfect preparedness to collapse the capital of the enemy and the structure of its military forces.”Â
South Korea and Japan said on Monday that North Korea had launched at least three short-range ballistic missiles, the second such launch this year.
Seoul is one of Washington’s key regional allies, and the US has stationed about 27,000 American soldiers in the South to help protect it against Pyongyang. Last week’s Washington-Seoul drills included “clearing operations” inside North Korea’s “key facilities” in case of an attack by Pyongyang, according to Seoul’s military.
Pyongyang launched the new Padasuri-6 surface-to-sea cruise missile from the east coast on 14 February, and fired the first ballistic missile of the year on 14 January.
