North Korea said on Thursday that leader Kim Jong Un supervised successful tests of two types of missiles — one designed to carry a “super-large conventional warhead” and the other likely for a nuclear warhead, as he ordered officials to bolster up his country’s military capabilities to repel United States-led threats.
The tests appear to be the same as the multiple missile launches that neighbouring countries said North Korea performed on Wednesday, extending its run of weapons displays as confrontations with the US and South Korea escalate.
The official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim oversaw the launch of the country’s newly built Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 ballistic missile tipped with a dummy “4.5-ton super-large conventional warhead.”
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It said the test-firing was meant to verify an ability to accurately hit a 320-kilometre-range target, suggesting it’s a weapon aimed at striking sites in South Korea.
KCNA said Kim also guided the launch of an improved “strategic” cruise missile, a word implying the weapon was developed to carry a nuclear warhead.
After the tests, Kim stressed the need to continue to “bolster up the nuclear force” and acquire “overwhelming offensive capability in the field of conventional weapons, too,” according to KCNA.
It cited Kim as saying that North Korea can thwart its enemies’ intentions to invade only when it has strong military power.
KCNA released photos of a missile hitting a ground target.
South Korea’s military said later on Thursday it assessed that both ballistic and cruise missiles fired by North Korea the previous day landed in the North’s mountainous northeastern region.
North Korea typically test-launches missiles off its east coast, and it’s highly unusual for the country to fire missiles at land targets likely because of concerns about potential damages on the ground if the weapons land in unintended areas.
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Jung Chang Wook, head of the Korea Defense Study Forum think tank in Seoul, said North Korea likely aims to show it’s confident about the the accuracy of its new ballistic missile with a high-powered warhead meant to attack ground targets.
But Jung said North Korea hasn’t acquired weapons that can penetrate deep into the earth and destroy underground structures.
The Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 ballistic missile’s first known test occurred in early July.
North Korea said the July test was successful as well, but South Korea’s military disputed the claim saying one of the two missiles fired by North Korea travelled abnormally during the initial stage of its flight before falling at an uninhabited area near Pyongyang, the capital.
North Korea hasn’t released photos on the July launches.
North Korea has been pushing to introduce a variety of sophisticated weapons systems designed to attack both South Korea and the mainland US to deal with what it calls its rivals’ intensifying security threats. Many foreign experts say North Korea would ultimately want to use its enlarged arsenal as leverage to win greater concessions in future dealings with the US.
Worries about North Korea deepened last week as it disclosed photos of a secretive facility built to enrich uranium for nuclear bombs.
Since late May, North Korea has also floated thousands of trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea, prompting the South to resume anti-North loudspeaker broadcasts at border areas.
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