North Korea conducted test of upgraded rocket launcher system, KCNA says

SEOUL: North Korea conducted a test firing of an upgraded 240mm guided multiple rocket launcher system on Tuesday, state news agency KCNA reported on Thursday, saying the weapon would bolster firepower along the country’s southern border.

The test demonstrated the accuracy and superiority of the range-extended rockets, which use an autonomous precision guidance system, KCNA said.

The rockets are able to strike targets 100 km (62 miles) away in a trajectory flight mode and 115 km away in a combined glide mode, it added.

The development of such rockets assures North Korea of a significant change in the firepower readiness along the southern border, the news agency said, effectively referring to the one it shares with South Korea.

Pak Jong-chon, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, who oversaw the test, stressed the need to concentrate the deadliest and most destructive attack forces on the southern border, KCNA said. South Korea’s Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to an emailed Reuters request for comment.

Pyongyang has been steadily upgrading its tactical and conventional arsenal that it intends to deploy near the border with South Korea. Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said the use of a precision guidance system suggested that North Korea could strike key facilities in the Seoul metropolitan area with a margin of error of just a few metres.

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This equates to a potential threat to South Korea’s heavily populated capital area regardless of the military response and could be intended to induce fear in South Korea, Lim said.

In June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw tests of key weapons, including an upgraded rocket launcher and tactical missiles, that the country said would also be used to defend its southern border.

Separately, Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said in a statement issued on Thursday that North Korea’s nuclear weapons status was irreversible and that the country would only become more resolute after the United States, South Korea and Japan this week reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearisation of North Korea at a trilateral meeting.