“Tactical guided missile”: North Korea is apparently testing a new weapon system

North Korea says it has successfully tested a new type of tactical guided missile. The state media reported that the development of this weapon system increases the efficiency of the use of “tactical nuclear weapons”.

North Korea says it has tested a new weapon system that will increase the effectiveness of its tactical nuclear weapons. The “new type of tactical guided missile” is of “great importance for drastically improving the firepower of artillery units at the front and increasing the efficiency of the use of tactical nuclear weapons,” reported the state news agency KCNA.

According to this, ruler Kim Jong Un was present at the test. Kim gave a military research team “important instructions on how to further expand defense capabilities and nuclear combat troops,” KCNA reported. Photos released by Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed a grinning Kim applauding as he watched the weapon’s test firing.

Apparently activities at nuclear test sites

The general staff of the South Korean armed forces confirmed the test and spoke of two “projectiles” that North Korea fired towards the open sea on Saturday evening (local time). They flew about 25 kilometers high and 110 kilometers wide and reached four times the speed of sound. Experts suspected that these could be new short-range ballistic missiles. It would be the country’s first tactical nuclear weapons delivery system, it said. UN resolutions ban North Korea from testing ballistic missiles of any range, which, depending on the design, can also carry a nuclear warhead.

The United States had warned of a possible North Korean nuclear weapons test around North Korea’s national day on April 15. This was celebrated with a big procession, fireworks and synchronized dancing – but without the usual military parade. North Korea has not tested any nuclear weapons since 2017. Most recently, however, ruler Kim had a whole series of missile tests carried out, and the military also fired an ICBM for the first time since 2017.

Satellite images also show signs of new activities in a tunnel at the nuclear test site Punggye-ri. Recently, North Korea also threatened to use nuclear weapons if South Korea preemptively attacked the country.

North Korea has tested nuclear weapons six times since 2006 and in 2017 announced the success of its most powerful test – a hydrogen bomb with an estimated yield of 250 kilotons. Experts assume that Pyongyang is now concentrating on making the warheads smaller so that they can be mounted on its ICBMs.

South Korean military exercises with the United States

On Monday, the armed forces of the United States and South Korea begin new military exercises. Pyongyang regularly criticizes that it feels threatened by such exercises. However, the South Korean general staff emphasized that this time it was “computer simulations and not real military maneuver training”.