Kim from North Korea is in charge of a mock nuclear retaliation practise.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un led two days of military drills "simulating a nuclear counterattack", including the launch of a ballistic missile, state media reported Monday. The drills were the fourth show of force from Pyongyang in a week and came during Freedom Shield, the biggest US-South Korea military exercise in five years. North Korea views all such exercises as rehearsals for invasion and has repeatedly warned it would take "overwhelming" action in response. Kim expressed satisfaction over the weekend drills, which were held to "let relevant units get familiar with the procedures and processes for implementing their tactical nuclear attack missions". Yang Uk, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said the weekend drills demonstrated that North Korea's nuclear posture was becoming more realistic.

Seoul and Washington have ramped up defence cooperation in the face of growing military and nuclear threats from Pyongyang, which has conducted a series of banned weapons tests in recent months. On Thursday, North Korea test-fired its largest and most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-17, its second ICBM test this year. The UN Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting on Monday over the ICBM launch at the request of the United States and Japan, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. North Korea's nuclear claims cannot be taken at face value, and the US-South Korea drills are turning the Korean peninsula into a flashpoint with higher potential for a nuclear war. North Korea declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear power and Kim recently called for an exponential increase in weapons production.