N. KOREA DISCLOSES PROVOCATION DETAILS

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North Korea has revealed the details and purpose of last week's serial provocations. It insisting that they were a military operation against South Korea's joint aerial drills with the U.S.. The North also said it had fired cruise missiles into international waters off the coast of Ulsan, which wasn't reported by the South Korean military. Seoul's military denied Pyongyang's claim.

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North Korea's General Staff Department insisted that last week's serial provocations were part of a military operation conducted to counter South Korea's joint aerial exercise with the U.S. It also disclosed the chronicles of its four-day actions. The North claimed it fired two strategic cruise missiles from Hamgyeongbuk-do Province into international waters 80 kilometers off the coast of South Korea's southeastern city of Ulsan last Wednesday, the first day of the operation. The GSD argued that it was a retaliation against Seoul's firing in response to Pyongyang's earlier launch of ballistic missiles that landed south of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto sea border between the two Koreas. Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff denied the North's new claim, which had not been reported by the military.

[Soundbite] Kim Jun-rak(Joint Chiefs of Staff) : "The North's claim is not true. Nothing has been detected or identified by S. Korean military."

The regime also said the missile launched last Thursday was the test firing of a special warhead aimed at paralyzing the operational command of the enemy. South Korean military authorities concluded the November 3 launch as a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. There are also opinions that it was a test of electromagnetic pulse bombs that disables the enemy's electronic and communication networks with an airborne nuclear detonation. The JCS said the missile was a Hwasong-17. But North Korea disclosed a photo of a missile that appears to be an improved Hwasong-15 with a shorter projectile and a modified warhead. North Korea also claimed that it had tested various warheads, such as cluster bombs and bunker busters, with a goal to hit the enemy's air bases.

[Soundbite] Shin Jong-woo(Defense Security Forum) : "It shows the North's determination to disable S. Korean and U.S. air bases with EMP bombs, cluster bombs and bunker busters."

Pyongyang also said it had mobilized 500 fighter jets to stage a massive operation. But the JCS again denied the claim, reiterating that only some 180 flight tracks had been detected. Military experts say some of North Korea's latest reports were exaggerated and it's unclear whether or not the photos were taken during the operation. Pyongyang has warned of more provocations, stressing it will respond with actual military measures.