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(Image: RODONG SINMUN)

A picture in the state-run Rodong Sinmum newspaper shows the leader watching a missile test alongside his generals.

The map in front of him charts the trajectories of three missiles tested by North Korea in a practice nuclear strike this week.

But it might also reveal the first target he wants to annihilate with his nukes – and it's a city that's home to several million people.

(Image: RODONG SINMUN)

Rodong Sinmun reports that the missile launch was partly designed to test nuclear detonators "at the designated altitude over the target area."

So South Korea's Chosun Ilbo researched what the ideal altitude for detonation was and compared it with the trajectory marked on the map.

What they discovered was that Busan – South Korea's second largest city – would likely bear the brunt of the first explosion.

The city is probably the place where America would try to send its reinforcements if North Korea invaded the South.

Fearing an imminent attack, the US has agreed to deploy its Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system in South Korea.

It's a move that's provoked fury, with Kim Jong-un pledging to turn South Korea into a "sea of fire and a pile of ash" when the nuclear shield arrives.

Recent days have seen increased activity at one North Korean nuclear test site, with satellite photos suggesting preparation for another enormous detonation there.

Now with the grim secret in Kim's latest photo revealed as well, the need for THAAD to be deployed in South Korea is clear, according to an editorial in the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

(Image: RODONG SINMUN) (Image: RODONG SINMUN)

It states: "Some opponents of the THAAD continue to claim that North Korea's nuclear weapons are just a way of getting concessions out of the US or are purely defensive. Thursday's pictures prove otherwise."

Foreign relations with the secretive state have deteriorated this year, after North Korea's first successful hydrogen bomb test in January sparked worldwide condemnation.

But things have got steadily worse in recent weeks after the US personally sanctioned Kim Jong-un for the first time, freezing his overseas assets.

North Korea has now closed its last formal line of communication with America, saying all further discussions will be on wartime terms.