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SEOUL, Sept. 19 (UPI) — North Korea test-fired a new ballistic missile carrying a super-large warhead and an improved strategic cruise missile, its state-run media reported Thursday, as leader Kim Jong Un called weapons development “the most important affair of the country.”
The new missile, named the Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5, was tipped with a 4.5-ton super-large conventional warhead in a launch conducted Wednesday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
“Its test-fire was aimed at verifying the accuracy of hit at medium range of 320 km (200 miles) and explosive power of the super-large warhead with a missile loaded with such a warhead,” KCNA said.
Photographs accompanying the report showed a missile detonating on a hilly inland area, instead of the North’s usual targets in the sea or on an uninhabited island.
Kim Jong Un oversaw the launches and “expressed great satisfaction” at the results, KCNA reported.
“The military and political situation in the region threatening the present state security environment indicates that the work for bolstering up the military capability for self-defense should be the most important affair of the country,” Kim said.
On Wednesday, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected several short-range ballistic missiles that were fired from an area north of Pyongyang and traveled roughly 250 miles to the northeast.
The JCS said Thursday that two ballistic missiles landed in a mountainous area of North Hamgyong Province, in the country’s northeast.
“North Korea has announced that it is steadily improving its capabilities, and our military is keeping a close eye on it,” JCS spokesman Col. Lee Sung-jun said at a press briefing.
The North previously reported that it launched the Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 in early July, a test that Seoul said ended in partial failure when one missile traveled only a short distance before appearing to explode over land.
Lee said that the South Korean military also detected a cruise missile that was fired into the Yellow Sea on Wednesday morning but did not publicly disclose it.
The launches come one week after North Korea fired a salvo of short-range missiles, which Pyongyang later said was a test of a new 600mm multiple rocket launcher.
Tensions are climbing on the Korean Peninsula as the North continues to unveil military hardware and test new weapons, some of which could be intended for shipment to Russia.
Pyongyang and Moscow have strengthened their relationship in the wake of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, with Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signing a mutual defense treaty in June. A recent South Korean intelligence report said the North has sent 13,000 shipping containers suspected of carrying arms to Russia since mid-2022.
North Korea’s top diplomat is on a visit to Russia this week, while Russian Security Council head Sergei Shoigu recently met with Kim in Pyongyang.
North Korea is also stirring up fresh concerns about its nuclear weapons program, with Kim publicly visiting a uranium enrichment facility last week and calling for an “exponential” boost of the regime’s nuclear arsenal.
On Thursday, the JCS said North Korea remains ready to conduct a nuclear test.
“Only political judgment remains,” Lee said. “Therefore, if the North Korean leader has a political decision, he can conduct a nuclear test at any time.”
UPI