Pyongyang staged a celebration to mark the deployment of the launchers. North Korea claims stationing more nuclear capable weapons on the border is a necessary deterrent to the US and South Korea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised the delivery of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to military units along the southern border, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Monday.
In a speech during the event, which took place on Sunday, Kim said the launchers were an “up-to-date tactical attack weapon” which he “personally designed.”
The “transferring ceremony” included lines of army-green launcher trucks filling up a long street, with seemingly thousands of spectators
attending the event, which included fireworks, according to images on state media.
“We believe [the missile launchers] are intended to be used in various ways, such to attack or threaten South Korea… Deploying near the border would mean that the range is not long,” Lee Sung-joon, spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a media briefing.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are currently running high, with the North increasingly testing weapons and sending balloons filled with trash over the border to the South.
The South has resumed broadcasts of propaganda and pop music at the DMZ, while restarting live-fire drills near the border.
This year, North Korea declared South Korea its “principal enemy”, and ended cooperation and outreach programs with the South.
Kim claims North Korea needs to upgrade it deterrence capabilities in response to a “significant and strategic shift due to the transformation of US-led alliances into nuclear-based military blocs,” KCNA reported.
This includes enhance nuclear readiness in the near future. The launchers moved to the border are capable of delivering “tactical” ballistic missiles, a term that describes systems capable of delivering lower-yield nuclear weapons.
North Korea has been expanding its arsenal of mobile short-range weapons designed to overwhelm missile defenses in South Korea. For years, Pyongyang has also been developing intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the US mainland.
Pyongyang frequently defies US-led sanctions by testing ballistic missiles. Sanctions have also been imposed over its nuclear program.
