Tag: Kim Jong Un

North Korea says it tested new solid-fuel intermediate-range missile with hypersonic warhead

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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North Korea said on Wednesday it tested another new hypersonic intermediate-range missile powered with solid propellants as it continues to expand its nuclear and missile program in the face of deepening tensions with neighbors and the United States.

The report by North Korean state media came a day after the South Korean and Japanese militaries detected the North launching the missile from an inland area around its capital toward its eastern sea.

North Korean state media said the test was supervised by authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un, who described the missile – named Hwasong-16B – as a key piece of his nuclear war deterrent he vowed to further build up to counter his “enemies,” a reference to the United States, South Korea and Japan.

Kim claimed that the North has now developed nuclear-capable, solid-fuel systems for “all the tactical, operational and strategic missiles with various ranges,” the Korean Central News Agency said.

In recent years, North Korea has been focusing on developing more weapons with built-in solid propellants. Those weapons are easier to move and hide and can be made to launch quicker than liquid-propellant missiles, which need to be fueled before launch and cannot stay fueled for long periods of time.

The North has since 2021 also been testing hypersonic weapons designed to exceed five times the speed of sound. If perfected, such systems could potentially pose a challenge to regional missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability. However, it’s unclear whether the North’s hypersonic vehicles consistently maintained a desired speed exceeding Mach 5 during tests in 2021 and 2022. During Tuesday’s test, the missile’s hypersonic glide warhead after being separated from the launch rocket reached a peak altitude of 101 kilometers (62 miles) and flew about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) while performing various flight maneuvers before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, the KCNA said. The South Korean and Japanese militaries had assessed that the missile flew around 600 (372 miles) although Japan’s Defense Ministry announced a similar apogee with the North Korean report.

The North had also tested a purported hypersonic IRBM in January, which came years after it flight-tested liquid-fuel IRBMs. Experts say such weapons if perfected is potentially capable of reaching remote U.S. targets in the Pacific, including the military hub of Guam. While North Korea had initially tested its hypersonic warheads with liquid-fuel systems, the ability to load them on solid-fuel rockets would allow for faster launches and operation, said Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at South Korea’s Research Institute for National Strategy.

“North Korea, in declaring that it has fully accomplished the nuclear weaponization of its missiles, also emphasized its commitment to arm its hypersonic missiles with nuclear weapons,” Chang said. “North Korea’s development of hypersonic IRBMs targets Guam, which hosts U.S. military bases, and even Alaska.”

Tensions in the region have risen since 2022 as Kim used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate his testing of missiles and other weapons. The United States and South Korea have responded by expanding their combined training and trilateral drills involving Japan and sharpening their deterrence strategies built around strategic U.S. assets.

While supervising Tuesday’s test, Kim called for his country to further expand its nuclear and missile program to acquire “overwhelming power capable of containing and controlling” his enemies, who have “recently run higher fever in boosting their military alliance and staging all sorts of war drills.”

Hours after the launch, Seoul’s Defense Ministry announced that South Korea, the United States and Japan conducted a combined aerial exercise above waters near Jeju island that involved at least one nuclear-capable U.S. B-52 bomber.

The United States in recent months has been increasing its deployment of strategic assets to the region, also including aircraft carriers and missile-firing submarines, in a show of force against North Korea.

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North Korea fires ballistic missile ahead of South Korea’s vote

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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North Korea fired at least one suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile in a show of force that came just days ahead of national elections in South Korea for parliamentary seats.

North Korea launched what appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile from Pyongyang at 6:53 am on Tuesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a message sent to reporters. The missile likely landed outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone, Kyodo News reported, citing a government official it did not name.

This was the third test of ballistic missiles from Kim Jong Un’s regime this year.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called the launch “absolutely unacceptable” and in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, Kyodo reported.

North Korea last tested an intermediate-range ballistic missile in January. A missile of this sort is built to fly far enough to hit all of Japan, where the US has positioned tens of thousands of troops, as well as US military facilities in Guam, where the Pentagon says it keeps one of America’s largest munitions depots in the world.

In March, Kim oversaw tests of multiple rocket launcher systems that fired off several nuclear-capable, short-range ballistic missiles. South Korea said that test may have been a display intended for Russia. The US, South Korea and Kyiv say the Kremlin has been using North Korean missiles for its assault on Ukraine.

South Korea’s defense minister Shin Wonsik has said North Korea is believed to have sent some 7,000 shipping containers of weapons since Kim and President Vladimir Putin met for a summit in September. They can hold about 3 million rounds of 152 mm shells, he said. North Koran and Russia deny the accusations despite a multitude of images from satellites showing the arms transfers taking place.

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North Korea tests solid-fuel engine for new hypersonic missile, aims at faraway US targets

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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North Korea successfully tested a solid-fuel engine for its new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile, state media reported Wednesday, claiming a progress in efforts to develop a more powerful, agile missile designed to strike faraway US targets in the region.

A hypersonic missile is among an array of high-tech weapons systems that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un publicly vowed to introduce in 2021 to cope with what he called deepening US hostility. Outside experts say Kim wants a modernized weapons arsenal to wrest US concessions like sanctions relief when diplomacy resumes.

On Tuesday, Kim guided the ground jet test of the multi-stage solid-fuel engine for the hypersonic missile at the North’s northwestern rocket launch facility, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

It cited Kim as saying the strategic value of the new missile with an intermediate-range is as important as intercontinental ballistic missiles targeting the US mainland and that “enemies know better about it.” It said that a timetable for completing the development of the new weapons system was “set through the great success in the important test.”

Intermediate-range missiles possessed or pursued by North Korea are the weapons systems primarily aimed at attacking the US Pacific territory of Guam, home to US military bases. Those missile can also reach Alaska, and with a range adjustment they can be used to strike closer targets like US military installations in Japan’s Okinawa island, experts say.

In recent years, North Korea has been pushing to develop more weapons with built-in solid propellants, which make launches harder to detect than liquid-propellant missiles that must be fueled before liftoffs and cannot last long. The North’s pursuit of hypersonic weapons is also meant to defeat US and South Korean missile defense systems, but it’s unclear the North’s hypersonic vehicles proved their desired speed and maneuverability during tests in recent years, analysts say.

In January, North Korea said it flight-tested a new solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic, maneuverable warhead, in a likely reference to the missile mentioned in Wednesday’s KCNA dispatch. In November, North Korea said it had tested engine tests for an intermedia-range missile but didn’t say whether it’s designed to carry a hypersonic warhead.

While the North’s missile test in January was likely related to the development of its first-stage rocket, this week’s engine test appeared focused on the development of its second-stage rocket in part of the North’s efforts to increase the weapon’s flying speed, said Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at South Korea’s Research Institute for National Strategy.

Chang said the latest engine test suggests North Korea could soon test-launch the new hypersonic missile.

After short-range tests with hypersonic weapons, North Korea would want to increase their ranges with maneuverable hypersonic warheads, Lee Choon Geun, an honorary research fellow at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute, said. He said the capacities of the new missile can be assessed when it’s test-flighted.

On Monday, South Korea, the US and Japan said they detected the multiple ballistic missile test-launches by North Korea in what was the country’s first missile firings in about a month. The North said Tuesday it performed a live-fire drill of what it called nuclear-capable “super-large” multiple rocket launchers designed to target South Korea’s capital, Seoul. South Korea’s military later said it views the North Korean weapons system tested as a ballistic missile.

North Korea has been engaging in a provocative run of missile tests since 2022. The US and South Korea militaries have responded by expanding their bilateral exercises and trilateral drills involving Japan. Observers say North Korea will likely intensify its run of missile tests ahead of the US presidential election in November.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

North Korea says Kim Jong Un supervised tests of rocket launchers targeting Seoul

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a live-fire drill of nuclear-capable “super-large” multiple rocket launchers designed to target South Korea’s capital as he vowed to boost his war deterrent in the face of deepening confrontations with rivals, state media said Tuesday.

The report came a day after South Korea and Japan said they detected North Korea firing multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward waters off its eastern coast, adding to a streak of weapons displays that have raised regional tensions.

Experts say North Korea’s large-sized artillery rockets blur the boundaries between artillery systems and ballistic missiles because they can create their own thrust and are guided during delivery. The North has described some of these systems, including the 600mm multiple rocket launchers that were tested Monday, as capable of delivering tactical nuclear warheads.

Photos published by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency showed at least six rockets being fired simultaneously from launch vehicles and flames and smoke blanketing what appeared to be a small island target.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said later Tuesday that it assesses North Korea conducted more launches than what was shown on the photos. Lt. Col. Lee Chang-hyun, a deputy JCS spokesperson, said that South Korea categorizes the North Korean weapons system tested Monday as a ballistic missile in view of its characteristics and capacities.

KCNA also said North Korean troops in a separate test simulated exploding an artillery shell at a preset altitude. The report didn’t specify whether that test was to rehearse how a nuclear weapon would be detonated over an enemy target.

Kim called the 600mm multiple rocket launchers key parts of his arsenal of weapons that are supposedly capable of destroying Seoul if another war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula.

“(Kim) said that it is necessary to further impress upon the enemies that if an armed conflict and a war break out, they can never avoid disastrous consequences,” the KCNA said. He called for his army to “more thoroughly fulfill 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.”

Lee, the South Korean deputy spokesperson, said South Korea and the United States have been bolstering their response capabilities against North Korea’s increasing nuclear threats.

North Korea’s launches came days after the end of the latest South Korean-U.S. combined military drills that the North portrays as an invasion rehearsal. It was unclear whether the North timed the launches with a visit to Seoul by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who on Monday attended a democracy summit and held talks with South Korean officials over the North Korean threat.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen since 2022, after Kim used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate his testing of missiles and other weapons. The United States and South Korea have responded by expanding their combined training and trilateral drills involving Japan and updating their deterrence strategies built around strategic U.S. assets.

There are concerns that North Korea could further dial up pressure in an election year in the United States and South Korea.

In a fiery speech to Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament in January, Kim declared that he was abandoning North Korea’s long-standing goal of reconciliation with the South and ordered the rewriting of the North’s constitution to cement its war-divided rival as its most hostile adversary. He said the new charter must specify North Korea would annex and subjugate the South if another war broke out

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North Korea fires ballistic missiles as Antony Blinken visits Seoul

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles in a defiant show of force that coincided with a visit to Seoul by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a Summit for Democracy.

Several short-range ballistic missiles were fired from around 7:44 am on Monday from a province southeast of Pyongyang, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in parliament that multiple missiles were launched, and there were no reports of damage as the projectiles fell outside of the country’s exclusive economic zone.

North Korea fired three ballistic missiles toward waters off the east coast that reached a maximum altitude of about 50 kilometers (31 miles) and flew some 350 km, Japan’s Ministry of Defense said. It didn’t comment on the type of projectiles but the trajectory is similar to that of short-range ballistic missiles North Korea has previously tested.

This is the first ballistic missile test from North Korea in about two months and it is unclear what was in the barrage. North Korea, which often comments on missile launches the following day, has been known to engage in provocations designed to coincide with high-profile political events involving the US, South Korea and Japan.

Kim Jong Un’s regime last conducted a ballistic missile test in mid-January, when it fired off an intermediate-range rocket designed to hit US bases in Asia. The state’s official media said that projectile was a “hypersonic” missile, indicating it deployed a reentry vehicle for carrying a nuclear warhead that can change its flight path at high speeds.

Kim and his official media have been lashing out frequently at the US and South Korea, with the North Korean leader saying the time for peaceful unification is over and striking the concept from the country’s constitution.

Prior to the launch, Kim guided military drills that included fire from an artillery unit capable of hitting Seoul, overseeing training that simulated storming a South Korean border guard post and driving the country’s newest tank. These stepped up threats against his neighbor to the south coincided with it holding joint military training with the US.

The US and South Korea concluded their annual Freedom Shield exercises on March 14, which included training on land, sea and in the air against contingencies posed by North Korea. Pyongyang has bristled for decades against joint drills, calling them a prelude to an invasion.

Kim said in February he has the legal right to annihilate South Korea. Kim has also shown no inclination that he wants to return to stalled nuclear disarmament talks and has rolled out a series of new weapons designed to deliver nuclear strikes on the US and its allies in Asia.

This has led to some speculation that Kim has turned the corner on his bellicose outbursts and is readying for battle. US President Joe Biden has warned Kim that it would mean the end of his regime if he tried to launch a nuclear attack.

Kim appears to be transferring massive amounts of weapons to Russia for President Vladimir Putin to use in his war on Ukraine. The arms include artillery shells and ballistic missiles, the US and South Korea have said. Russia is likely providing technology, key materials and commodities to Kim that could help him expand the economy and increase his military strength.

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North Korea’s Kim Jong Un drives new-type tank during drills and calls for efforts to prepare for war

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un joined his troops in training to operate newly developed battle tanks as he called for bigger efforts to prepare for war, state media reported Thursday.

The North’s tank training was seen as a response to the annual 11-day South Korean-US military drills that are to end later Thursday. The North views its rivals’ exercises a rehearsal for invasion.

The North’s training on Wednesday was designed to inspect tankmen’s combat capabilities and involved the new-type main battle tank that Kim called “the world’s most powerful,” the official Korean Central News Agency.

During the training, heavy tanks moved around various simulated harsh combat circumstances and fired rounds at targets. Kim mounted one of the new-type tanks and drove it himself, “adding to the high militant spirit of the tankmen of our army,” KCNA said.

North Korea’s Defense Ministry earlier vowed to carry out “responsible military activities” in reaction to the ongoing South Korea-U.S. military exercises in the South. Kim later supervised artillery firing drills.

The South Korean-U.S. training involve a computer-simulated command post training and 48 kinds of field exercises, twice the number conducted last year.

North Korea has dialed up its weapons testing activities since early 2022 in a bid to modernize and enlarge its nuclear and missile arsenals. The U.S. and South Korea have expanded their training exercises and a trilateral drill involving Japan in response.

Experts say Kim likely wants to use his upgraded weapons arsenal to win U.S. concessions like extensive relief of international sanctions on North Korea. They say North Korea is expected to extend its testing activities and ramp up warlike rhetoric this year as both the United States and South Korea hold major elections.

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Putin gifts Russian-made car to Kim Jong Un in sign of ‘special personal relations,’ North Korea says

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has gifted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a Russian-made car for his personal use in a demonstration of their special relationship, North Korea’s state media reported Tuesday.

The report didn’t say what kind of vehicle it was or how it was shipped. But observers said it could violate a U.N. resolution that bans supplying luxury items to North Korea in an attempt to pressure the country to abandon its nuclear weapons.

Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, and another North Korean official accepted the gift Sunday and she conveyed her brother’s thanks to Putin, the Korean Central News Agency said. Kim Yo Jong said the gift showed the special personal relationship between the leaders, the report said.

North Korea and Russia have boosted their cooperation significantly since Kim traveled to Russia last September for a summit with Putin. During Kim’s visit to Russia’s main spaceport, Putin showed the North Korean leader his personal Anrus Senat limousine and Kim sat in its backseat.

According to Russia’s state-run Tass news agency, Aurus was the first Russian luxury car brand and it’s been used in the motorcades of top officials including Putin since he first used an Anrus limousine during his inauguration ceremony in 2018.

Kim, 40, is known to possess many foreign-made luxury cars believed to have been smuggled into his country in breach of the U.N. resolution.

During his Russia visit, he traveled between meeting sites in a Maybach limousine that was brought with him on one of his special train carriages.

During an earlier Russia trip in 2019, Kim had two limos waiting for him at Vladivostok station — a Mercedes Maybach S600 Pullman Guard and a Mercedes Maybach S62. He also reportedly used the S600 Pullman Guard for his two summits with then-President Donald Trump in Singapore in 2018 and Vietnam in 2019. In 2018, Kim used a black Mercedes limousine to return home after a meeting with South Korea’s then-President Moon Jae-in at a shared Korean border village.

Kim’s possession of such expensive foreign limousines shows the porousness of international sanctions on the North. Russia voted for the ban on supplying luxury good to North Korea, even though as a permanent Security Council member, it could have vetoed the resolution.

The expanding ties between North Korea and Russia come as they are locked in separate confrontations with the United States and its allies — North Korea for its advancing nuclear program and Russia for its protracted war with Ukraine. The U.S., South Korea and their partners accuse North Korea of sending conventional arms to Russia for its war in Ukraine, in return for high-tech Russian weapons technologies and other support.

After its foreign minister returned home following a Russian visit in January, the North’s state media reported Putin expressed his willingness to visit the North at an early date.

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North Korea’s Kim calls for South to be seen as ‘primary foe’, warns of war

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday called for the constitution to be changed to ensure that South Korea is seen as the “primary foe” and warned his country did not intend to avoid war should it happen, state media KCNA reported on Tuesday.

In a speech to the Supreme People’s Assembly, North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament, Kim said he had concluded that unification with the South was no longer possible, and accused Seoul of seeking regime collapse and unification by absorption.

Kim said the constitution should be amended to educate North Koreans that South Korea is a “primary foe and invariable principal enemy” and define the North’s territory as separate from the South.

“We don’t want war but we have no intention of avoiding it,” Kim was quoted as saying by KCNA.

North Korea should also plan for “completely occupying, subjugating and reclaiming” South Korea in the event of a war, and South Koreans should also no longer be referred to as fellow countrymen, Kim added, calling for the severing of all inter-Korean communication and the destruction of a monument to reunification in Pyongyang.

Three organisations dealing with unification and inter-Korean tourism would also be shut down, state media added.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, at a cabinet meeting, said Pyongyang was being “anti-national” for calling the South a hostile country.

Kim’s call for constitutional changes come as tensions have worsened in the Korean Peninsula recently amid a series of missile tests and a push by Pyongyang to break with decades of policy and change how it relates to the South.

Analysts have said North Korea’s foreign ministry could take over relations with Seoul, and potentially help justify the use of nuclear weapons against the South in a future war.

Ruediger Frank, professor of East Asian Economy and Society at the University of Vienna, said Kim’s new policies “will trigger a cascade of changes across inter-Korean relations and regional dynamics”

“This opens the door to regular interstate relations, including both diplomatic normalisation and potential conflict,” Frank wrote in the report for the U.S.-based 38 North project.

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Kim Jong-un directs North Korean military to speed up war readiness

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered its military, the munitions industry and the nuclear weapons sector to accelerate war preparations to counter what he called unprecedented confrontational moves by the U.S., state media said on Thursday.

Speaking on the policy directions for the new year at a key meeting of the country’s ruling party on Wednesday, Kim also said Pyongyang would expand strategic cooperation with “anti-imperialist independent” countries, news agency KCNA reported.

“He (Kim) set forth the militant tasks for the People’s Army and the munitions industry, nuclear weapons and civil defence sectors to further accelerate the war preparations,” KCNA said.

North Korea has been expanding ties with Russia, among others, as Washington accuses Pyongyang of supplying military equipment to Moscow for use in its war with Ukraine, while Russia provides technical support to help the North advance its military capabilities.

Kim also laid out economic goals for the new year during the meeting, calling it a “decisive year” to accomplish the country’s five-year development plan, the report said.

“He … clarified the important tasks for the new year to be dynamically pushed forward in the key industrial sectors,” and called for “stabilising the agricultural production on a high level.”

The North has suffered serious food shortages in recent decades, including famine in the 1990s, often as a result of natural disasters. International experts have warned that border closures during the COVID-19 pandemic worsened food security.

North Korea’s crop output was estimated to have increased year-on-year in 2023 due to favourable weather conditions. But a Seoul official has said the amount was still far below what is needed to address the country’s chronic food shortages.

The 9th plenary meeting of the 8th central committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea kicked off on Tuesday to wrap up a year during which the isolated North enshrined nuclear policy in its constitution, launched a spy satellite and fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile.

The days-long assembly of the party and government officials has been used in recent years to make key policy announcements. Previously, state media released Kim’s speech on New Year’s Day.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vows ‘increased offensive measures’ post missile test

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened “more offensive actions” to repel what he called increasing US-led military threats after he supervised the third test of his country’s most advanced missile designed to strike the mainland US, state media reported Tuesday.

Kim’s statement suggests he is confident in his growing missile arsenal and will likely continue weapons testing activities ahead of next year’s presidential election in the United States. But many observers say North Korea still needs to perform more significant tests to prove it has functioning missiles targeting the US mainland.

After watching Monday’s launch of the Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile, Kim said the test showed how North Korea could respond if the United States were to make “a wrong decision against it,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

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Kim stressed the need to “never overlook all the reckless and irresponsible military threats of the enemies … and to strongly counter them with more offensive actions,” KCNA said.

The Hwasong-18 ICBM is a developmental, solid-fueled ICBM that is considered North Korea’s most powerful weapon. Its built-in solid propellant makes launches harder for outsiders to detect than liquid-fueled missiles, which must be fueled before liftoffs. But many foreign experts say North Korea still has some other technological hurdles to master to acquire reliable nuclear-tipped ICBMs, such as one to protect warheads from the harsh conditions of atmospheric reentry.

KCNA said the Hwasong-18 missile, launched on a high angle to avoid neighboring countries, flew a distance of 1,002 kilometers (622 miles) for 73.5 minutes at a maximum altitude of 6,518 kilometers (4,050 miles) before landing in an area off the North’s east coast. It said Kim expressed “great satisfaction” with the launch, which verified again the reliability of “the most powerful strategic core striking means” of North Korea.

It was the North’s third test of the Hwasong-18 missile. Its two previous launches occurred in April and July.

“Based on their statement, this looks to have been an exercise in signaling and a developmental test in one,” said Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “There’s nothing new here technically as far as I can tell at this early stage, but they’re certainly growing increasingly confident in their new solid propellant ICBM.”

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Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the North’s latest ICBM test is yet another indicator of how far its missile engine technology has progressed, but added there are limits to what North Korea can learn from lofted trajectory firings.

“Demonstrating warhead targeting and reentry capabilities would involve provocative launches across greater distances,” Easley said. “So more significant tests of both technology and diplomacy are likely in the New Year.”

KCNA said its Hwasong-18 test was meant to issue a warning over its rivals’ confrontational military moves on North Korea. It said a recent US-South Korean meeting to discuss their nuclear deterrence plan openly revealed their intention to hold joint drills with a simulated nuclear attack on North Korea.

It also referred to the second Nuclear Consultative Group meeting between senior US and South Korean officials last Friday. During their meeting in Washington, the two countries agreed to update their nuclear deterrence and contingency strategies and incorporate nuclear operation scenarios in their combined military exercises next summer, according to officials in Seoul.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said during a Cabinet Council meeting on Tuesday that a “nuclear-based, powerful Korea-US alliance” would be formed soon.

The consultative body is responsible for sharing information on nuclear and strategic weapons operation plans and joint operations, though the US will retain operational control of its nuclear weapons. The group’s establishment was part of US efforts to ease South Korean worries about North Korean provocations while keeping Seoul from pursuing its own nuclear program.

Since last year, North Korea has performed more than 100 ballistic missile tests in violation of U.N. bans in what outside experts call an effort to upgrade its nuclear arsenal and win greater US concessions. The North has still avoided fresh international sanctions as China and Russia blocked the US and others’ efforts to toughen U.N. sanctions on the country. North Korea also faces outside suspicions that it receives sophisticated weapons technologies from Russia in return for supplying conventional arms to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The United States and South Korea have expanded their military training and increased the temporary deployments of powerful US military assets in South Korea.

On Tuesday, South Korea, the US and Japan began putting into operation the sharing of real-time missile warning data on North Korea and established details of their trilateral exercises in coming years, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. It added the three countries will beef up their three-way cooperation to cope with regional challenges and promote peace in the region.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow