North Korea Arms Top Soldiers With 'Nuclear Backpacks'

North Korea is arming a top military unit with “nuclear backpacks,” following a series of nuclear tests conducted recently.

"[North Korea] joined the front rank of the military powers fully equipped with nuclear attack capability," he said. In the latest development, an official from the North Korea claims that the country has been secretly developing secret military units that will be comprised of soldiers outfitted with "nuclear backpacks,".

"Outstanding soldiers were selected from each reconnaissance platoon and light infantry brigade to form the nuclear pack unit the size of a battalion," he added.

The precise function of the purported backpack remains unclear. Weighing somewhere between 22-62 pounds, the units will either explode or house a kind of atomic spray, Sputnik News reported Wednesday.

"The enemy’s aircraft carriers will capsize even if a nuclear backpack is detonated at a distance," he added.  This is aimed at reinforcing the psychological armament of North Korean soldiers and to prevent them from being afraid of war.

The packs will not create large nuclear blasts, but will instead contain nuclear material that can be sprayed over the enemy. Once the uranium has been sprayed in an area, people cannot live there for several decades because of radioactive contamination.

In January, North Korea began conducting nuclear and ballistic missile tests that resulted in the implementation of harsh new sanctions by the United Nations. The North further threatened to destroy the US using "nuclear hammers of justice."

The increasingly provocative actions appear to be a response to the massive two-week Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) war games conducted between the US and South Korea, which North Korea describes as a rehearsal for a full-scale invasion of the North.