'All strike weapons hit targets 100%,' KCNA reports; Rodong Sinmun keeps silent

North Korea said it conducted a joint strike drill involving long-range artillery and missile units on Saturday. [Pyongyang Rodong Sinmun via News1]
North Korea said it conducted a joint strike drill involving long-range artillery and missile units on Saturday. [Pyongyang Rodong Sinmun via News1]

North Korea said it conducted a joint strike drill involving long-range artillery and missile units on Saturday. Leader Kim Jong-un did not attend the exercise.

The Korean Central News Agency reported Monday that "a coordinated firepower assault drill by long-range artillery and missile subunits of combined formations at various levels of the Korean People's Army was conducted" on Saturday. Pak Jong-chon, vice chairman of the Korean Workers' Party Central Military Commission, observed the drill on site, while Yu Chang-son, chief of the KPA General Staff's artillery bureau, directed it.

Subunits selected from five combined artillery and missile formations took part in the exercise. North Korea deployed a range of new combat systems — including various attack drones, strategic cruise missiles, large-caliber thermobaric multiple rocket launchers and tactical ballistic missiles — and claimed all strike weapon systems achieved 100 percent target accuracy.

Pak said the purpose of the drill was "to let the military do what it is supposed to do."

Yu said mastering the operational procedures of the integrated fire command system — a component of the strategic weapons comprehensive management system — improving expertise in realizing integrated automated fire command across multiple combat systems, and enhancing the efficiency of target destruction in response to enemy fire were among the training objectives the North prioritizes. He added that such drills "greatly help qualitatively improve the strategic response posture of strike groups at all levels and enhance the rapid-reaction capability of subunits at all levels in contingencies."

Yu also said joint drills between missile and long-range artillery units "boost the combat morale of soldiers and improve the expertise needed to completely and structurally destroy the enemy's armed forces the moment an order is given at any time." He stressed that North Korea "will continuously advance its counterattack posture against the enemy through practical and effective training."

The drill was not reported by the Rodong Sinmun, the Korean Workers' Party's official newspaper read by North Korean citizens, or by Korean Central Broadcasting Station, the state radio service — only by KCNA, which targets overseas audiences.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier that it had detected several short-range ballistic missiles fired from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea at around 5:20 a.m. Saturday.

The launched missiles were believed to be Hwaseong-11 series short-range ballistic missiles and 600-millimeter super-large multiple rocket launchers. It was North Korea's 13th ballistic missile launch this year, and the fourth fired into the East Sea in just over a month — following launches on Aug. 6, Aug. 12 and Aug. 20.


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