North's Kim threatens to destroy Seoul during multiple rocket launch drill

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called on his regime's military to be prepared to destroy Seoul as he oversaw a drill involving multiple rocket launchers, according to Pyongyang's state media on Tuesday.

In this photo released by Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday, six missiles are fired from multiple launch rocket systems during a drill that took place at an unspecified location the previous day. [YONHAP]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called on his regime's military to be prepared to destroy Seoul as he oversaw a drill involving multiple rocket launchers, according to Pyongyang's state media on Tuesday.

According to the North’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim made the remarks during a drill by artillery units in the country’s western region using 600-millimeter multiple launch rocket systems on Monday.

The specifications detailed in the KCNA report appeared to match those of the KN-25, which the North officially describes as a “super-large caliber” multiple launch rocket system, but is classified by the U.S. as a short-range ballistic missile system due to its larger size and greater range compared to traditional rocket artillery.

The KCNA also reported that Monday’s launches included a midair detonation of a warhead launched from the same system at a designated altitude above a target.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that day it detected several short-range ballistic missile launches from the vicinity of Pyongyang.

The KCNA quoted Kim as calling the multiple launch rocket system one of “the core striking means” of the regime’s military and that the drill was intended “to further impress upon our enemies that they cannot avoid disastrous consequences if war breaks out.”

The KN-25 is one of several missile systems that the North has previously claimed is capable of delivering tactical nuclear weapons.

Reports on the February 2023 military parade by the North’s state media referred to the KN-25 and other missile systems on display as critical assets deployed by the regime’s “tactical nuclear weapons operation units.”

In comments that appeared to suggest Seoul would be the North’s primary target in an armed conflict, Kim also said the drill involving his regime’s “destructive offensive means” would enable the North Korean military to “thoroughly fulfill their missions to block and suppress the possibility of war with their constant perfect preparedness to collapse the capital of the enemy and its military organization.”

In January, Kim called South Korea his regime’s “unchanging primary enemy” and called for a constitutional revision defining it as such.

While photos released by the KCNA showed six missiles being launched simultaneously, the JCS said Tuesday it believes the North likely launched more missiles afterward.

“The photos appear to show the first simultaneous launches, and we assess that there were more launches later,” JCS spokesman Lt. Col. Lee Chang-hyun said at a press briefing.

The previous day, the JCS issued a statement that “strongly condemned” the missile launches, calling them “a clear provocation that imperils peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.”

The latest launches punctuated a month of relative inactivity in weapons testing by the North, which launched cruise missiles on five separate occasions earlier this year.

The launches occurred the same day that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in South Korea to attend the Summit for Democracy and four days after South Korea and the United States concluded their annual Freedom Shield joint exercise.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]