North Korea is ‘close to mounting nuclear warheads on tactical missiles’

North Korea has made ‘substantial progress’ towards being able to mount nuclear warheads on tactical nuclear weapons, South Korea’s defence minister has revealed.

Speaking to South Korea’s National Assembly Lee-Jong Sup said that the North fired four cruise missiles in its latest tests yesterday.

He admitted that Kim Jong Un‘s regime has made significant progress towards being able to mount nuclear warheads on such weapons, amid mounting anxiety in the region.

But, the minister expressed doubt that Pyongyang could minituarise its nuclear warhead stocks sufficiently to do so currently, The Times reports.

The UN has said this week that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is ‘actively pursuing its nuclear weapons programme’. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae watch a missile drill at an undisclosed location

This picture, released by North Korea’s official news agency, was taken on March 19. It shows a warhead missile launch exercise ‘simulating a nuclear counterattack’

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un led two days of military drills ‘simulating a nuclear counterattack’, including the firing of a ballistic missile carrying a mock nuclear warhead, state news agency KCNA reported on Monday.

In September last year, the pariah state approved a new law which set out conditions in which it could use nuclear weapons, including pre-emptively in certain circumstances.

A UN panel claimed in 2021 that North Korea had ‘probably developed miniaturised nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its ballistic missiles.’

This would mean that it has the capicity to strike a US city with its Hwasong-17 intercontinental missile.

The weapons were tested at the end of last week in a defiant show of force by Pyongyang. 

North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile toward the sea, its neighbours said.

It has been increasing testing activities in response to US-South Korean military drills, which reports say it views as an invasion rehearsal. 

North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile toward the sea on Sunday, its neighbors said, ramping up testing activities in response to US-South Korean military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal.

British forces have also joined ‘high-intensity’ military exercises, as tension ramps up on the peninsula. 

The Royal Marines have undertaken the exercises in air and sea as part of a wider amphibious landing which are said to have provoked North Korea into launching missiles in a show of defiance.  

Missiles launched on Sunday from the North’s northwestern region flew across the country before it landed in the waters off its east coast, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. 

It said South Korea’s military has boosted its surveillance posture and maintains a readiness in close coordination with the United States.