to us kim yo jong saidnorth korea has steadfastly slammed regular south koreaus military trainings as an invasion rehearsal though the allies say their exercises are defensive in nature some analysts say north korea often uses south koreaus drills as a pretext to test and modernize its weapons arsenals which it believes is essential to win sanctions relief and other concessions from the united statesby now we know that any action taken by the us and south korea however justified from the vantage point of defense and deterrence against north koreas reckless behavior will be construed and protested as an act of hostility by north korea said soo kim a security analyst at the californiabased rand corporation there will always be fodder for kim jong uns weapons provocationswith nuclear weapons in tow and having mastered the art of coercion and bullying kim does not need selfdefense but pitting the us and south korea as the aggressors allows kim to justify his weapons development soo kim saidus national security council spokesperson adrienne watson said the us will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the american homeland and south korea and japan south koreas presidential national security council said it will seek to strengthen its overwhelming response posture against potential north korean aggression based on the solid military alliance with the united statessouth korean and us military officials plan to hold a tabletop exercise this week to hone a joint response to a potential use of nuclear weapons by north korea the allies are also to conduct another joint computer simulated exercise and field trainings in marchnorth korea is coming off a record year in weapons demonstrations with more than 70 ballistic missiles fired including nuclearcapable weapons north korea has said many of those weapons tests were a warning over ussouth korean military drills last year it also passed a law that allows it to use nuclear weapons preemptively in a broad range of scenarioskim jong un entered 2023 with a call for an exponential increase of the countrys nuclear warheads mass production of battlefield tactical nuclear weapons targeting south korea and the development of more advanced icbms targeting the us