After it passed its biggest state anniversary without an expected military parade typically used to unveil provocative weapons systems, North Korea boasted on Sunday it has successfully test-fired a newly developed tactical guided weapon.
The latest in a spate of launches, according to the official Korean Central News Agency, was observed by the leader Kim Jong Un, which it said would bolster the effective operation of the Pyongyang’s tactical nuclear forces and the firepower of its long-range artillery corps.
KCNA published several undated images showing the smiling Kim, surrounded by his generals, during the firing of at least one rocket from a mobile launch platform. No technical details of the missile were revealed but the information that the test launch was successful.
KCNA also didn’t elaborate on the possibility that the weapon tested is likely capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
The latest testing activity, conducted at an undisclosed time and location, is the latest Pyongyang’s provocation in a form of a nuclear explosive test aimed to expand the nuclear arsenal and increase pressure on North Korea’s rivals amid stalled diplomacy.
Only last month, Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington were put on high alert after North Korea conducted its first full-scale ICBM test launch since 2017, voicing concerns that Pyongyang could conduct a new nuclear test.
According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, two projectile launches were detected early Saturday evening from the North’s eastern coastal town of Hamhung flying about 110 km at a maximum speed of Mach 4 at an apogee of 25 km.
South Korean officials have allegedly held an emergency meeting to discuss the launches. They’ve been warning for quite a while now that they’ve been detecting signs that Pyongyang is also rebuilding tunnels at a nuclear testing ground it partially dismantled weeks before it entered now-dormant nuclear talks with the US in 2018.
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