Middle East conflict getting wider? As US moves shifts focus, North Korea rallies behind Iran, tests missiles

Just as the United States is shifting air defense assets out of South Korea to help it fight Iran as the conflict entered Day 12 on Tuesday, March 11, far away, North Korea was testing its cruise missiles from its latest warship — sparking concerns about a weakened deterrent against nuclear-armed country.

North Korea carried out a similar missile test from the vessel last week, claiming the country was in the process of “arming the Navy with nuclear weapons”.

Kim Jong-un was later quoted by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, hinting that important successes were achieved in putting strategic and tactical strike capabilities into practical use and deploying them for “actual war”.

Defying US President Donald Trump's desire to have a say in who runs Iran, the Islamic republic on Sunday named Mojtaba Khamenei to replace his father, Ali Khamenei, who died in an Israeli airstrike on February 28.

Clearing taking a side, North Korea said, “We respect the rights and choice of the Iranian people to elect their supreme leader,” also condemning the US and Israel for destroying the regional peace and escalating instability worldwide.

The concern however remains – what actual war is North Korea talking about? Is the US-Israel conflict with Iran eventually drawing in other countries into the war?

In the middle of the war, the US and South Korea also recently kicked off their springtime military drills “Freedom Shield” – which North Korea responded to by equaling it to them as “attempts at a preemptive war” as it also warned them of “unimaginably terrible consequences”.

The drills were highlighted by the North “as not merely defensive and routine, but ultimately attempts at a preemptive war”.

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched multiple strikes on Iran and Iran responded with its own strikes against Israel and Gulf states with US bases.

While Iran has asserted that it was not targeting its neighbouring allies, but those that were being used to launch attack on Tehran. Trump who has not set a timeline on the conflict which has resulted in the oil prices soaring across the globe, has also mentioned that it may be in its final stage.

(With agency inputs)