Previously: South Korea and America Try to Do Show of Strength, But Missile Malfunctions and Crashes

North Korea still exists, by the way.

The US is still threatening to destroy them for no reason.

AP:

North Korea’s recent barrage of missile launches were the simulated use of its tactical battlefield nuclear weapons to “hit and wipe out” potential South Korean and U.S. targets, state media reported Monday, as its leader Kim Jong Un signaled he would conduct more provocative tests.

The North’s statement, released on the 77th birthday of its ruling Workers’ Party, is seen as an attempt to burnish Kim’s image as a strong leader at home amid pandemic-related hardships as he’s defiantly pushing to enlarge his weapons arsenal to wrest greater concessions from its rivals in future negotiations.

“Through seven times of launching drills of the tactical nuclear operation units, the actual war capabilities … of the nuclear combat forces ready to hit and wipe out the set objects at any location and any time were displayed to the full,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

KCNA said the missile tests were in response to recent naval drills between U.S. and South Korean forces, which involved the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan for the first time in five years.

Viewing the drills as a military threat, North Korea decided to stage “the simulation of an actual war” to check and improve its war deterrence and send a warning to its enemies, KCNA said.

North Korea considers U.S.-South Korean military drills as an invasion rehearsal, though the allies have steadfastly said they are defensive in nature. Since the May inauguration of a conservative government in Seoul, the U.S. and South Korean militaries have been expanding their exercises, posing a greater security threat to Kim.

The launches — all supervised by Kim — included a nuclear-capable ballistic missile launched under a reservoir in the northeast; other ballistic missiles designed to launch nuclear strikes on South Korean airfields, ports and command facilities; and a new-type ground-to-ground ballistic missile that flew over Japan, KCNA reported. It said North Korea also flew 150 warplanes for separate live-firing and other drills in the country’s first-ever such training.

Cheong Seong-Chang at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea said the missile launches marked the first time for North Korea to perform drills involving army units tasked with the operation of tactical nuclear weapons.

The North’s public launch of a missile from under an inland reservoir was also the first of its kind, though it has previously test-launched missiles from a submarine.

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies, said North Korea likely aims to diversify launch sites to make it difficult for its enemies to detect its missile liftoffs in advance and conduct preemptive strikes.

KCNA said when the weapon launched from the reservoir was flying above the sea target, North Korean authorities confirmed the reliability of the explosion of the missile’s warhead, apparently a dummy one, at the set altitude.

…

“The U.S. and the South Korean regime’s steady, intentional and irresponsible acts of escalating the tension will only invite our greater reaction, and we are always and strictly watching the situation crisis,” Kim was quoted as saying.

It’s obvious that Kim is the good guy. He just wants to be left alone.

Remember what happened to mainland Europe the last time the Russians got angry?

Why are we trying to piss them off again?

Large-scale exercises of Russian Strategic Missile Forces begin in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region. The exercises include ‘YARS’ missile launchers being placed in field positions.

In total, more than 3,000 servicemen and some 300 units of weapons and military equipment are involved in the drills.

Nearly the entire former Soviet military is organizing collective drills in Tajikistan next month.

TASS:

Plans are in store to hold joint drills with the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Tajikistan in November, Russian Defense Minister, General of the Army Sergey Shoigu said.

“We’ll involve military authorities and units of the Central Military District, as well as aviation, in the drills,” Shoigu said at Thursday’s meeting with Tajik Defense Minister Lieutenant General Sherali Mirzo.

Everyone knows the West has a bigger military and a much more technologically advanced one.

But do they have the will?