North Korea has test-fired a new type of tactical guided weapon designed to boost its nuclear fighting capability, state media reported on Sunday.
The test, the 13th round of weapons launches by Pyongyang this year, came amid concerns that North Korea may soon conduct a larger provocation like a nuclear test in an effort to expand the country’s weapons arsenal and increase pressure on Washington and Seoul amid stalled diplomacy.
The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said leader Kim Jong Un observed what it called the weapon’s successful launch. It released a photo showing a beaming Mr Kim clapping his hands with military officers.
KCNA said the weapon tested has “great significance in drastically improving the firepower of the frontline long-range artillery units, enhancing the efficiency in the operation of (North Korea’s) tactical nukes and diversification of their firepower missions.”
KCNA did not elaborate, but the use of the words “tactical nukes” suggested the weapon is likely capable of carrying a battlefield nuclear warhead that could hit strategic targets in South Korea, including US military installations. The KCNA dispatch did not say when and where the launch occurred.
“North Korea is trying to deploy not only long-range nuclear missiles aimed at American cities but also tactical nuclear weapons to threaten Seoul and US bases in Asia,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. “Pyongyang’s purposes likely exceed deterrence and regime survival. Like Russia employs the fear it could use tactical nukes, North Korea may want such weapons for political coercion, battlefield escalation and limiting the willingness of other countries to intervene in a conflict.”
Some observers said the weapon showed in North Korean photos suggested it might be a smaller, lighter version of its nuclear-capable KN-23 missile that has a highly manoeuvrable flight aimed at defeating missile defence systems. Others said it could be a new missile that combines the technical characteristics of the KN-23 and another short-range ballistic missile called the KN-24.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement on Sunday that it had detected two projectile launches from the North’s eastern coastal town of Hamhung early on Saturday evening.
It said the projectiles flew about 110km (68 miles) at an apogee of 25km (16 miles) and at a maximum speed of Mach 4. South Korea’s presidential office said officials have met twice this weekend to discuss the North Korean military activities.
South Korea’s military said later on Sunday that its nine-day springtime military drills with the United States will start on Monday. It said the allies decided to hold computer-simulated command post exercises that do not involve field training after reviewing factors like the Covid-19 pandemic and the allies’ combined defence readiness.
The exercises could further intensify animosities on the Korean Peninsula because North Korea has previously responded with its own weapons tests and fiery rhetoric.
North Korea has started this year with a slew of weapons tests, including its first flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the US homeland since 2017.
South Korean and US officials said Pyongyang could soon launch additional provocations like another ICBM test, a rocket launch to put a spy satellite into orbit or even a nuclear test explosion that would be the seventh of its kind.
South Korea’s military said it has detected signs that North Korea is rebuilding tunnels at a nuclear testing ground it partially dismantled weeks before it entered now-dormant nuclear talks with the United States in 2018.
A possible nuclear test by North Korea would involve a tactical nuclear warhead, said analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea. He predicted that North Korea would push to mount a tactical nuclear warhead on the weapon tested this weekend and deploy such nuclear missiles near the border with South Korea.
Sunday’s KCNA dispatch quoted Mr Kim as presenting unspecified tasks to build up North Korea’s nuclear combat forces after praising what he called successive progress in its efforts to reinforce the country’s war deterrence power.
The North’s recent testing activity involved the sophisticated weapons systems Mr Kim has vowed to introduce to cope with what he calls American hostility.
“North Korea has a domestic imperative to make and perfect weapons ordered by Kim Jong Un last year regardless of what the US does or doesn’t do. The test also tells his people that their country is strong despite their apparent economic difficulties,” said Duyeon Kim, a senior analyst at Washington’s Centre for a New American Security. “One reason for the political timing could be to protest anticipated US-South Korea military drills.”
