North Korea will face the end of its regime if it attempts to use nuclear weapons, the South Korean defense ministry warned on Tuesday, after the former said it conducted rocket drills simulating a nuclear counterattack. North Korea’s state media said leader Kim Jong-un on Monday guided a tactical drill simulating a nuclear counterattack involving super-large multiple rocket launchers against enemy targets, Yonhap news agency reported. “If North Korea attempts to use weapons, it will face an immediate, overwhelming and decisive response from the South Korea-US alliance, and the North Korean regime will face its end,” ministry spokesperson Jeon Ha-kyu said in a regular press briefing. Jeon said North Korea’s continued provocations would only strengthen South Korea’s military capabilities and US extended deterrence, and their trilateral security cooperation involving Japan. Extended deterrence refers to America’s commitment to using the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear, to defend its ally. The allies have been pursuing an integrated form of extended deterrence with Seoul leveraging its high-tech conventional military capabilities. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the North’s latest missile tests appear to be “a show of force” against the ongoing military drills between Seoul and Washington as well as demonstrating its capabilities in lieu of its delayed spy satellite launch and arms sales abroad. The South Korean military said earlier North Korea appears to be making preparations for its next launch of a spy satellite, although there are no signs of an imminent launch. JCS spokesperson Lee Sung-jun evaluated North Korea’s claim of a nuclear attack capability as “exaggerated” and the South Korean military is ready to detect and shoot down its ballistic missiles. “North Korea is known to have not yet concluded its experiments with small tactical nuclear weapons,” Lee said during the briefing. (IANS)
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