The Korean Central News Agency said the missiles fired had “accurately hit an island target 365 km away”
Seoul, South Korea:
North Korean state media on Friday released images of leader Kim Jong Un overseeing tests of a multiple rocket launcher system, a day after Seoul accused Pyongyang of firing a volley of short-range ballistic missiles.
The photos showed Kim, in a brown leather jacket, smiling with uniformed generals as he oversaw the simultaneous launch of what appeared to be eighteen projectiles.
The test involved “super-sized multiple missile sub-units”, according to a report by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Analysts have suggested the nuclear-armed North could test and ramp up production of artillery and cruise missiles before sending them to Russia for use in Ukraine, something the Pentagon said it confirmed in a report released this week.
Images from the exercise showed the 600mm multiple rocket system (MLRS), which North Korea has said could be equipped with nuclear warheads.
The exercises were intended to “serve as an opportunity to clearly demonstrate the consequences our rivals will face if they provoke us,” the KCNA report said.
The exercises showed that the North “will not hesitate to launch a preemptive strike at any time by invoking the right to self-defense,” it added.
KCNA said the missiles fired had “accurately hit an island target 365 km away.”
On Thursday, the South Korean military said it had detected the launch of about 10 short-range ballistic missiles.
Seoul’s military also estimated the range of those missiles at about 350 kilometers (217 miles), while calling the launch a “provocation.”
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller condemned the firing of the ballistic missiles – a violation of UN sanctions – as “reckless behavior that poses a serious threat to the Korean Peninsula”.
On Monday, North Korea attempted to launch a second spy satellite into orbit, but it ended in an explosion in mid-air.
The attempt came just hours after Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo held a rare trilateral summit where they called on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.
A day later, North Korea sent hundreds of waste-filled balloons across the border, in retaliation for balloons full of anti-Kim propaganda sent to the North by activists in the South.
Analysts have said North Korea’s missile launcher systems could hit Seoul, which is only about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the demilitarized zone separating the two countries.
Waste balloons
Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said Pyongyang’s latest actions, including the garbage-filled balloons, were part of an attempt to divert attention from the failed satellite launch .
North Korea “also tried to convey a message that the military initiative on the Korean Peninsula belongs to Pyongyang, and not to South Korea or the United States,” he said.
In a separate KCNA report, North Korea on Friday accused Washington of deploying its RC-135U reconnaissance aircraft from Japan to the Korean Peninsula earlier this week.
“Other spy planes of the US” and the South Korean Air Force, “including the U-2S and RQ-4B, are monitoring and spying on the DPRK 24 hours a day, seriously affecting the sovereignty and security of the DPRK violated,” the report said. , using North Korea’s official name.
“The US and other hostile forces will face unforeseen disasters because of their bluff and reckless espionage,” the report said.
A new report from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, meanwhile, said an analysis of debris found in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region in January confirmed that Russia used North Korean ballistic missiles in its invasion.
The North recently said the country would equip its army with a new 240mm multiple rocket launcher from this year, adding that a “significant change” to the army’s artillery combat capabilities is underway.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
