North Korea’s state news agency KCNA said on Friday it had tested a new nuclear-armed underwater attack drone under leader Kim Jong-un this week as a US amphibious assault ship arrived in South Korea for joint exercises, Reuters and AFP reported.

From Tuesday to Thursday, the North Korean military deployed and tested this new weapon system, whose mission is to “create a large-scale radioactive tsunami” through an underwater explosion and destroy enemy ships and ports, KCNA reported.

A North Korean drone swam underwater for more than 59 hours during a training exercise and detonated a payload on Thursday in waters off the east coast, KCNA said. He did not specify the nuclear capabilities of the drone.

The drone system is designed to carry out stealth attacks in enemy waters and destroy naval strike groups and key operational ports, KCNA said.

“This nuclear-armed underwater strike drone can be deployed on any coast and in any port or towed by a surface ship for operation,” the news agency said.

In separate drills, North Korea also confirmed that it had launched four cruise missiles on Wednesday to practice executing tactical nuclear strikes.

The missiles were equipped with a “test warhead that simulates a nuclear warhead” and flew between 1,500 and 1,800 kilometers.

South Korea’s military said on Wednesday that North Korea had fired four cruise missiles off its east coast.

On March 20, the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, conducted an exercise simulating a nuclear attack on the United States and South Korea.

KCNA wrote that the drills were aimed at strengthening the country’s “war deterrence and nuclear counterattack capability”, accusing Washington and Seoul of “blatantly trying to start a war” against it.

Pyongyang accuses South Korea of ​​joint military exercises with the United States, which will last ten days, as a rehearsal for an invasion of its territory.