North Korea's Missile Defense Administration has announced it will conduct military tests of its air defense system, launching two new types of missiles to assess their "combat capability."
The maneuvers, overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, have determined that the "enhanced version" missiles possess "superior combat capability for rapid response to various aerial targets such as attack drones and cruise missiles," according to the North Korean news agency KCNA.
Kim Jong Un was accompanied by senior North Korean military officials in a demonstration of military capability held at the same time as the joint exercises that the United States and South Korea began this Monday with the mobilization of some 40,000 troops from both countries. Pyongyang considered this a "threat" and therefore reserved its "right to self-defense."
For North Korean authorities, this new missile development is based on "unique and special technology" and has demonstrated "very adequate" capabilities for "destroying various aerial targets."
The North Korean military accused its southern neighbor on Saturday of firing up to ten warning shots at its troops along the southern border, where Pyongyang is building new infrastructure to protect its territory. For its part, Seoul asserted that North Korean troops had crossed the military demarcation line separating the two sides of the Demilitarized Zone.
