The day after South Korea’s military said it detected firing multiple missiles from an eastern coastal area, North Korea said its testing spree this week involved various new weapons systems, including ballistic missiles armed with cluster-bomb warheads
What the weapons include?
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the tests, that intended to expand nuclear-capable forces aimed at rival South Korea, lasted three days starting Monday and also included demonstrations of anti-aircraft weapons, purported electromagnetic weapons systems and carbon-fiber bombs.
KCNA said the latest tests included demonstrations of cluster-munition warhead systems mounted on the nuclear-capable Hwasong-11 ballistic missiles, which resemble Russia’s Iskander missiles in their design for low-altitude, maneuverable flight to evade missile defense systems.
The report said the launches confirmed that the short-range missile, when armed with such warheads, “can reduce to ashes any target covering an area of 6.5-7 hectares (16 to 17.2 acres) with the highest-density power.”
What South Korea said?
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles fired on Wednesday travelled between 240 km and 700 km before landing in the sea. It also noted that at least one projectile had been detected a day earlier, launched on Tuesday from an area near North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang.
Jang Do-young, a spokesperson for ‘s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a briefing that the military was analysing the launches while sharing information with US and Japanese counterparts, but declined to provide specific assessments about the North’s claims of progress in its military capabilities.
Japan’s defence ministry said none of the weapons fired on Wednesday entered waters within its exclusive economic zone, while the US military said the North Korean launches on Tuesday and Wednesday posed no immediate threat to the United States or its allies.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has suspended virtually all diplomacy with Seoul and Washington since the collapse of his nuclear talks with President in 2019, and has since accelerated the development of nuclear-capable missiles that threaten US allies in Asia as well as the US mainland.
Kim has also pursued closer ties with Russia, China and other countries embroiled in confrontations with the United States as he looks to break out of isolation and strengthen his regional footing.
North Korean state media says Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will arrive in the country on Thursday for a two-day trip in the latest round of diplomacy between the countries.
