North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, walks with military officials as he observes the Hwasong-11 Ra surface-to-surface tactical ballistic missile being test-fired at an unspecified location, in this file photo from April 19, to verify the characteristics and power of a cluster bomb warhead and fragmentation mine warhead applied to the tactical ballistic missile, in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency the next day. [YONHAP]
North Korea confirmed Wednesday it had test-fired two new weapons systems — a lightweight multipurpose missile launch system and multiple AI-guided tactical cruise missiles.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) on the previous day had detected multiple projectiles, including close-range ballistic missiles and artillery rockets, launched from the Jongju area of North Phyongan Province toward the Yellow Sea.
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The test was "part of the plan for modernizing the artillery and missile armed forces to attain the five-year goal for national defense development," a report by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. It "analyzed and estimated the power of the special mission warhead of tactical ballistic missile, the reliability of the 240 millimeter controlled artillery rocket with expanded firing range which employed an ultraprecision autonomous navigation system, and the AI-guided hit accuracy of tactical cruise missile."
