OUR South Korea And USA launched their largest joint military high schools in five years today despite her threats North Koreawhich announced a few hours earlier that it had launched two strategic cruise missiles from a submarine.

Pyongyang said the launch was intended to test a “nuclear deterrent,” criticizing the 11-day “Freedom Shield” exercise.

North Korea announced that “two strategic cruise missiles accurately hit their target in the East Sea” after traveling 1,500 kilometers, KCNA news agency reported.

The launches were intended to prove North Korea’s determination to control a situation in which, according to the KCNA, “US imperialists and their proxies, the South Korean forces, are increasingly openly promoting their military preparations against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”

Images released by North Korean media show an 8.24 caliber Yongung submarine, a missile being fired, and white smoke and flames.

South Korea’s military general staff said it observed the launch of at least one unidentified missile from a North Korean submarine on Sunday.

Defense High Schools

Freedom Shield high schools are conducting drills “to repel any North Korean attacks and carry out a North Korean stabilization operation,” the South Korean military explained.

At the same time, he stressed that these universities are “defensive in nature and based on a joint operational plan.”

Such military gyms infuriate Pyongyang as it sees them as a rehearsal for an invasion of its territory, and it regularly warns that it will take “suppressive” action in response.

In 2022, North Korea declared its status as a nuclear power “irreversible” and conducted a record number of ballistic tests in violation of UN resolutions.

On Friday, the KCNA reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un asked the country’s military to strengthen its high schools ahead of a “real war.”

Washington “virtually admitted that North Korea would never give up its nuclear program,” said An Chang-il, director of the Global Institute for North Korean Studies.

He added that Liberty Shield High Schools will have “a very different impact – both quantitatively and qualitatively – compared to previous high schools held in recent years.”

It’s entirely possible that Pyongyang will use high schools as an “excuse” to further invest in its equipment program, according to Chun In-bum, a retired South Korean army general.

“We must expect other missile launches, of different types and ranges, and even nuclear tests. Further acts of intimidation by North Korea are not surprising,” he added.

^{Source: APE-MEB, AFP, dpa.}