North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observed a live-fire test of multiple rocket launch systems with his teenage daughter, state media said. The report came as the U.S.-South Korean “Freedom Shield” computer-simulated command post exercise is scheduled to run through March 19, a period North Korea often responds to with weapons tests and heightened rhetoric, according to the Associated Press account published March 15.

In the state report carried by the Korean Central News Agency, KCNA said Kim watched a strike drill involving twelve 600mm-calibre, ultraprecision rocket launchers off North Korea’s east coast on Saturday, a day later described by South Korea’s military as part of launches it detected from the North’s capital region toward the eastern sea.

South Korea’s military said Saturday it detected about 10 ballistic missiles fired from North Korea’s capital region toward the eastern sea. South Korea’s National Security Council characterized the launches as a provocation that violated U.N. Security Council resolutions banning any ballistic activities by North Korea.

KCNA said Kim told participants that the drill would expose targets within the 420-kilometer (260-mile) striking range and said it would create “uneasiness” and give them “a deep understanding of the destructive power of tactical nuclear weapon.” The report also included Kim’s quoted warning: “If this weapon is used, the opponent’s military infrastructure within its striking range can never survive.”

KCNA photos published with the report showed Kim and his daughter walking near huge olive-green launch trucks, with the girl reportedly named Kim Ju Ae and described as aged about 13. The AP report said she has accompanied her father at numerous high-profile events such as missile tests and military parades since late 2022, a pattern that has fueled outside speculation that she is being groomed as his heir.

The AP report added that experts say North Korea’s large-sized rocket launchers can blur the boundaries between artillery systems and ballistic missiles because they can create their own thrust and are