SEOUL (AFP) -- North Korea said Monday it had test-fired two strategic cruise missiles from a submarine, as South Korea and the United States kicked off their largest joint military exercises in five years.
Nuclear-armed Pyongyang said the test verified its “nuclear war deterrence means in different spaces” as it slammed the drills -- known as Freedom Shield -- which will run for 10 days from Monday.
“The two strategic cruise missiles precisely hit the preset target on the East Sea of Korea,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The KCNA report said the test was linked to the United States and South Korea “getting evermore undisguised in their anti-DPRK military maneuvers”, referring to the North by its official name.
Photos and video released by North Korean state media showed the submarine, the “8.24 Yongung”, and a missile flying into the sky from the water, trailing white smoke and flames.
The South Korean military has said the Freedom Shield exercise was a “defensive one based on a combined operational plan”.
But North Korea views all such exercises as rehearsals for invasion and has repeatedly warned it would take “overwhelming” action in response.
“North Korea has been speaking in missiles against joint drills,” said Go Myong-hyun, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. “It wants to emphasize that the reason for developing missiles is for self-defense purposes.”
The foreign ministry in Pyongyang also released a statement Monday slamming the United States over “the U.S. vicious ‘human rights’ racket”, after Washington said it would hold a UN meeting this week on abuses in North Korea.
Last year, North Korea declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power and fired a record-breaking number of missiles. Leader Kim Jong Un last week ordered his military to intensify drills to prepare for a “real war”.
Although the official policy of both countries towards North Korea -- that Kim must give up his nukes and return to the table for talks -- has not changed, experts said there had been a practical shift.
The United States has “effectively acknowledged that North Korea will never give up its nuclear program”, An Chan-il, a defector turned researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told AFP.
The Freedom Shield drill is the first since that happened, meaning it “will be very different -- both qualitatively and quantitatively -- from previous joint exercises that took place in recent years”, he added.