North Korea demonstrates new tactical nuclear weapons and intensifies threats to its neighbors and the West

North Korea announced new weapons tests on Tuesday and showed its leader, Kim Jong Uninspecting nuclear warheads, a message that underscores that it is focused on beefing up its tactical nuclear arsenal for possible use in the region, where tensions continue to escalate.

Kim urged to increase nuclear production for military purposes and to develop more powerful weaponsstate media reported Tuesday.

The state agency KCNA today released three important pieces of information converging on the same idea: Pyongyang is designing more and more types of nuclear weapons which can be used in close proximity to its territory.

The regime thus launches an increasingly unequivocal warning after shouting against the major military maneuvers that Seoul and Washington are carrying out these days near its border, exercises on a scale never seen before on the peninsula and which North Korea considers a dress rehearsal to invade their territory.

The KCNA news agency headlined its cover on Tuesday with Kim Jong-un’s visit to the Pyongyang Nuclear Weapons Research Institute, where he “familiarized” with “the technical specifications of new tactical nuclear weapons”.

nuclear strike exercise

Kim was also briefed on progress in the computerization of the ‘Haekbangsoe’ (Korean for ‘Nuclear Trigger’) Combined Nuclear Weapons Management System, ‘whose scientific accuracy, reliability and safety were rigorously tested in the recent Combined Tactical Exercise which simulates a nuclear counterattack,” the news detailed in reference to the exercise just ten days ago.

The leader urged those in charge of the institution to step up the production of “nuclear materials for military use” and “build powerful nuclear weapons” with a view to “increase in geometric progression the possession of these artefacts”.

Photos from the visit show for the first time models of North Korean atomic warheads designed to be inserted into short-range projectiles.

Together with the heads, apparently named “Hwasal-31” (“Volcano-31”), appear three of the weapon systems that the regime has repeatedly tested in recent months, and with particular insistence in recent days: Hwasal-1 and Hwasal – 2 strategic cruisers and KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles.

To that effect, the North Korean news agency also reported that the two KN-23s that the regime fired on Monday were “carried with simulated nuclear warheads” and that they exploded about 500 meters above the simulated target on an offshore islet. of the northeast coast city of Kim Chaek, as photos from the rehearsal show show.

Since the allies’ big spring maneuvers began, Pyongyang has carried out several tests of missiles that explode when they fly over the target. simulation of nuclear atmospheric explosionsa clear message that it will not hesitate to use short-range atomic weapons if necessary.

New weapon tests

North Korean media also reported that the regime has once again tested its own underwater drone with the ability to generate radioactive tsunamis.

The test of this guided torpedo was carried out between March 25 and 27, according to the state agency KCNA, which already announced last Friday of a first test of this new underwater weapon.

The drone, which KCNA dubs “Haeil-1” (“Tsunami-1”), was tested on the East Coast and detonated its dummy head in the target area after traveling 600 kilometers following a “bumpy and elliptical” path . 41 hours and 27 minutes.

The goal of these systems launched from a submarine and other platforms is to penetrate coastal waters and cause a great radioactive wave that wipes out entire fleets, destroys ports and other infrastructure and generate terrible damage in coastal regions.

strangers

On the other hand, Seoul said so on Monday capacity doubt of this drone, similar to the Russian Poseidon, and he assured that he considers it in a very early stage of development.

Many experts have deemed it unlikely that the North Korean regime has been able, with the technology at its disposal, to perfect such a weapon given the high complexity it requires.

“North Korea has unveiled a significantly scaled-down tactical nuclear warhead, and many are wondering whether it can actually explode,” said Cheong Song-chang, a researcher at the Sejong Institute.

“He raised the possibility of North Korea carrying out its seventh nuclear test with these tactical nuclear warheads,” he told AFP.

In any case, a more rudimentary system than the Russian one poses a potential threat to the ports of neighboring South Korea or Japan, as well as US naval bases in both countries.

Pyongyang has entered into an “exchange” of missile launches and tests in response to US and South Korean military exercises, placing a heavy burden on the impoverished country.

The unveiling of the tactical nuclear weapon coincides with the arrival of a US Navy carrier strike group in South Korea on Tuesday.

Source: AFP and EFE