South Korea revealed its most powerful ballistic missile and other weaponry aimed at North Korea during a spectacular Armed Forces Day ceremony Tuesday, as the president warned the North’s dictatorship would collapse if it used nuclear weapons.
South Korea’s weapons demonstrations and warning to North Korea come after its northern neighbor recently sparked regional tensions by revealing its uranium enrichment facilities and testing missiles ahead of the November presidential election in the United States.
“If North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons, it will meet a decisive and overwhelming reaction from our military and the (South Korea-US) alliance. “Alliance,” President Yoon Suk Yeol told thousands of troops assembled at a military airfield outside Seoul.
“That day will be the end of the North Korean regime.”
“The North Korean regime must abandon the delusion that nuclear weapons will protect them,” Yoon told reporters.
At their ceremony, the South Korean military displayed over 340 pieces of military equipment and weaponry systems.
Among them was its most powerful ballistic missile, the Hyunmoo-5, which observers estimate can carry around 8 tons of a conventional warhead capable of penetrating deep into the earth and destroying North Korean underground bunkers.
It was the first time South Korea revealed the missile.
The United States flew a long-range B-1B bomber on the ceremony demonstrating its security commitment to its Asian partner.
South Korea also used some of its most advanced fighter jets.