North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Nov. 2 an allied exercise bolstered Pyongyang’s case for a faster nuclear buildup, while South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff described the session as deterrence planning.
KCNA carried remarks by Kim Jong Sik, a first vice department director of the Workers’ Party of Korea’s Central Committee. He said North Korea’s policy of strengthening its nuclear deterrent would remain unchanged and called for faster progress. Kim called Iron Mace “the most hideous nuclear war rehearsal,” alleging it was aimed at using nuclear weapons against the DPRK.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the allies held the tabletop session at its Seoul headquarters and discussed strengthening extended deterrence, according to accounts by Newsis and Yonhap’s English-language service. Those reports put the exercise dates at Sept. 29 to Oct. 2. A French-language Yonhap report gives Nov. 2 as the end date, leaving the published accounts in conflict.
The South Korean accounts described the exercise as examining how U.S. nuclear capabilities could work with South Korean conventional forces. They said the allies discussed extended deterrence against North Korea’s nuclear threat. The public descriptions do not establish Kim’s allegation about rehearsing nuclear weapons use; they provide no details of the exercise scenario.
The exercise falls within an alliance framework established by the April 2023 Washington Declaration, which created the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) to coordinate on extended deterrence and nuclear and strategic planning. The U.S. State Department lists conventional-nuclear integration and exercises among the NCG’s work streams. KCNA described Iron Mace as an annual exercise held since 2024.
EconoTimes previously covered allied planning for Iron Mace.
