North Korea tested an underwater nuclear attack drone designed to unleash a “radioactive tsunami” that would destroy naval vessels and port, state media reported on Friday. During drills that went on from Tuesday through Thursday, the North Korean military deployed and test-fired this new weapon system which would set off a massive destructive wave, the KCNA news agency reported.
"This nuclear underwater attack drone can be deployed at any coast and port or towed by a surface ship for operation," state media KCNA stated.
On Tuesday, this “secret weapon” was put on water and detonated on Thursday the test warhead, up to that point it had cruised for 59 hours and 12 minutes at a depth of 80 to 150 metres. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guided this exercise, the agency reported.
The North's Central Military Commission of the Worker's Party commanded the drills "in order to alert the enemy to an actual nuclear crisis and verify the reliability of the nuclear force for self-defence".
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As per KCNA's report, Kim said this should be a warning for the United States and South Korea to "realise the DPRK's unlimited nuclear war deterrence capability being bolstered up at a greater speed". DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's official name the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"He expressed his will to make the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet regime plunge into despair for their choice through the high-profile demonstration of the powerful war deterrence," the report stated.
Following a year of record-breaking weapon tests, seeing the growing nuclear threats, Washington and Seoul have joined hands to ramp up their security cooperation. On March 13, they kicked off their largest joint military drills in five years, known as Freedom Shield.
KCNA reported that on Wednesday the North fired strategic cruise missiles "tipped with a test warhead simulating a nuclear warhead".
Two "Hwasal-1"-type strategic cruise missiles and two "Hwasal-2"-type strategic cruise missiles, launched in South Hamgyong province, accurately hit the target set in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
The South Korean military had reported the firing of multiple cruise missiles from the North on Wednesday.
This launch came about a week after Pyongyang test-fired its largest and most powerful missile, a Hwasong-17 – its second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test this year.
North Korea last year declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear power and Kim recently called for an "exponential" increase in weapons production, including tactical nuclear weapons. The North's state media described the ICBM launch as a response to the ongoing, "frantic" US-South Korea drills.