SEOUL: North Korean pioneer Kim Jong Un drove two days of military drills "recreating an atomic counterattack", including the terminating of a long range rocket conveying a fake atomic warhead, state news organization KCNA detailed Monday.
According to the report, Kim expressed "satisfaction" regarding the weekend drills, which were held "to allow relevant units to get familiar with the procedures and processes for implementing their tactical nuclear attack missions."
The exercises were Pyongyang's fourth show of force in a week and occurred at the same time that South Korea and the United States conducted their own military maneuvers, 11 days of joint exercises known as Freedom Shield, which were the largest in five years.
North Korea sees generally such activities as practices for attack and has more than once cautioned it would take "overpowering" activity accordingly.
According to KCNA, the exercises on Saturday and Sunday were divided into drills for "launching a tactical ballistic missile tipped with a mock nuclear warhead" and exercises for simulating the transition to a nuclear counterattack posture.
It added, without providing any additional information, "The missile was tipped with a test warhead simulating a nuclear warhead."
Sunday, the joint chiefs of staff in Seoul said that Pyongyang's short-range ballistic missile flew 500 miles (800 kilometers) before hitting the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
They claimed that US and South Korean intelligence were looking into it and called it a "serious provocation" that went against UN sanctions.
The launch has also been criticized by Tokyo and the Indo-Pacific Command of the US military.
Seoul and Washington have increased their defense cooperation in response to the increasing military and nuclear threats posed by the North, which has recently carried out a number of prohibited weapons tests.
Seoul and Tokyo have also tried to improve security cooperation and mend fences over past disagreements as a result of Pyongyang's flurry of aggression.
The Hwasong-17, Pyongyang's largest and most potent intercontinental ballistic missile, was fired for the second time this year during a test on Thursday.
The ICBM send off followed two short-range long range rockets on Tuesday and two vital voyage rockets terminated from a submarine last Sunday.
The UN Security Board is supposed to hold a crisis meeting Monday over the ICBM send off in line with the US and Japan, Yonhap news organization revealed.
According to KCNA, Kim stated that the Saturday and Sunday drills had given the North Korean military units "great confidence."
He likewise noticed that the North "can't really prevent a conflict with the simple truth that it is an atomic weapons state," and said that the nation could arrive at its objectives "when the atomic power is idealized for of truly equipped for mounting an assault on the foe."
Kim has recently called for an exponential increase in the production of weapons, including tactical nuclear weapons, and North Korea has declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear power.
This month, Kim also instructed the North Korean military to intensify drills in preparation for a "real war."