North Korea has test-fired a “new-type tactical guided weapon” with an aim of boosting the efficiency of its smaller nuclear weapons delivery systems, state-run media said Sunday, as the isolated country continues to diversify its arsenal.
“The new-type tactical guided weapon system developed under special attention of the Party Central Committee is of great significance in drastically improving the firepower of the frontline long-range artillery units and enhancing the efficiency in the operation of tactical nukes of the DPRK and diversification of their firepower missions,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported without specifying when the test took place.
The South Korean military said later Sunday that the North had launched two projectiles that flew 110 kilometers, hitting a top altitude of 25 kilometers at a speed of Mach 4.
Japan’s Defense Ministry and the U.S. military did not immediately confirm the weapons test.
In an apparent sign of the importance of this particular test, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch. Kim has generally refrained from observing tests of the country’s shorter-range weapons.
Photos released by KCNA showed Kim surrounded by a coterie of uniformed military officials clapping as they observed the “successful” weapons test.
KCNA said Kim had also given instructions on a “long-term plan” for “further building up the defense capabilities and nuclear combat forces” of his country.
Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the weapon was likely a short-range ballistic missile and the North’s “first tactical nuclear weapon delivery system.”
The latest test comes amid signs that Pyongyang could soon resume nuclear tests, specifically of a tactical, smaller nuclear bombs for use in the battlefield.
U.S. and South Korean officials have noted activities at the North’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site that could be preparations for a test, although the timing and nature of such a test were unclear.
“You don’t have to be particularly imaginative to put … two and two together: this test of a tactical nuclear delivery system comes as indicators grow of significant reconstitutive work at North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site,” Panda wrote on Twitter.
The latest missile test also came just after the North marked the 110th anniversary of the birth of the country’s late founder, Kim Il Sung — the country’s most important holiday — with celebrations across the country but no military parade.
South Korean officials have said the North could still stage a parade or carry out a weapons test on or around the April 25 anniversary of the founding of the North Korean military.
Doing so would effectively kill two birds with one stone for Kim, as that anniversary coincides with joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington that are also due to start on Monday.
The North routinely lambastes the regular joint military drills as a rehearsal for invasion.
Late last month, the North tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that Japan said is capable of traveling 15,000 km, putting all of the continental United States within striking distance.
That launch signified a clear departure from Kim’s self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile tests, which had been in place since 2017.
The North’s record-breaking spate of missile tests this year have demonstrated that Kim has no intention of letting Washington and its allies forget about deadlocked negotiations over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program — even as U.S. President Joe Biden remains laser-focused on the bloody war in Ukraine.
Denuclearization talks between the U.S. and North Korea have been stalled since 2019. Biden has repeatedly said that his administration harbors no “hostile intent” toward Pyongyang and is prepared to meet “unconditionally” with a goal of “the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
But Kim has appeared uninterested in Biden’s pitch, condemning the U.S. offers as a “petty trick.”
Observers say the North Korean strongman has no intention of relinquishing his nuclear arsenal, as he believes it is key to his regime’s survival. Instead, he has ordered his regime to double down and prepare for a “long-term confrontation” with the United States.
In January last year, Kim unveiled a five-year plan to expand his atomic arsenal, including the development of smaller tactical warheads as part of a laundry list of new capabilities.
Following through on this would almost certainly mean more provocative weapons tests in the coming weeks and months.
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