A JCS official dismissed Pyongyang’s claims, calling them “exaggerated”, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported Sunday.
KCNA said the United States and South Korea were pursuing “confrontation hysteria” with their latest joint military drills.
Analysts said the North’s claims were aimed at deterrence.
North Korea’s claims “suggest the Kim regime is desperate to deter an increasingly capable South Korea, including Seoul’s strengthened alliance with Washington”, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha University.
“Pyongyang’s rhetoric actually goes far beyond the logic of deterrence, probably to shore up domestic political legitimacy, which is an ominous sign for inter-Korean relations,” he told AFP.
Cho Han-bum, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said the weekend launches were aimed at proving North Korean capabilities to the South and its allies.
“North Korea is moving according to their own plan, which is to strike major military facilities on the Korean peninsula and strike US bases in Japan at the same time,” he said, adding the two long-range cruise missiles fired at the weekend targeted Japan.
“The key point is that North Korea is countering South Korea and the United States with nuclear operation units rather than conventional weapons,” Cho told AFP.
Source: CNA
