North Korea is testing a new weapons system under the supervision of leader Kim Jong Un, which it says will increase the effectiveness of its tactical nuclear weapons, state media reported.
“Tactical guided weapons of a new type … are of great importance for drastically improving the firepower of long-range front artillery units and increasing the effectiveness of tactical nuclear weapons,” the official Korean Central News Agency said early Sunday. to specify when the test was performed. It says that the test was successful.
The South Korean military said Sunday that North Korea fired two shells from its east coast toward the sea on Saturday. The shells, fired from the Hamhung area at around 6pm, flew 110km (68 miles) at a maximum altitude of 25km at a maximum speed of below Mach 4, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un applauded as he watched what state media said was the launch of a new weapon. Photo: KCNA VIA KNS / AFP / Getty Images
Photos circulated by Rodong Sinmun show a grinning Kim – surrounded by uniformed officers – applauding as he watched what he said was the test firing of the weapon.
The North Korean said Kim had given the military research team “important instructions for further building defense capabilities and nuclear forces.”
On Friday, North Korea celebrated the birthday of North Korea’s founding leader, Kim Il Sung’s grandfather, with a huge public march, fireworks and synchronous dancing – but without a military parade, as many observers had predicted.
Analysts and representatives of South Korea and the United States also believed that a nuclear test of an important anniversary was possible.
The anniversary celebrations came three weeks after North Korea conducted its largest intercontinental ballistic missile test to date – the first time Kim’s most powerful weapon has been launched at full range since 2017.
This test was the culmination of a record blitz of launches to lift sanctions this year and signaled the end of a self-imposed moratorium on long-range and nuclear tests.
Long-range and nuclear tests have been halted since Kim met with then-US President Donald Trump over a fit of doomed diplomacy that collapsed in 2019.
Officials and analysts say North Korea could conduct its seventh nuclear test in the coming weeks.
Satellite images show signs of new activity in a tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, which North Korea said was destroyed in 2018 before the first Trump-Kim summit.
North Korea has tested nuclear weapons six times since 2006 and highlighted the success of its latest and most powerful one in 2017, a 250-kiloton hydrogen bomb.
Experts say Pyongyang will seek to miniature nuclear warheads to be mounted on its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) with new nuclear experience.
South Korean officials said Pyongyang could still hold a military parade or conduct weapons tests on or about April 25, the anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army.
The anniversary coincides with a joint military exercise between Seoul and Washington, which is set to begin on Monday.
South Korea and the United States regularly hold military exercises, but Pyongyang has long protested against the exercises as a rehearsal for war.
With Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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