North Korea conducts weapon test according to South Korean military

The projectiles were fired from North Korea’s Hamhung area around 6pm, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement on Sunday.

The projectiles flew about 110km at an altitude of 25km, with a maximum speed of Mach 4.0 or lower, said the statement.

On Sunday, North Korean state media KCNA reported that the country’s leader Kim Jong Un had observed the test firing of a “new-type tactical guided weapon,” which was “carried out successfully.”

KCNA claimed the new weapon boosted the country’s “frontline long-range artillery units.”

Images published by North Korea state-owned newspaper Rodong Sinmun showed a smiling Kim clapping as he observed what it said was the test-firing of the new tactical weapon.

Immediately after the launch, South Korea’s military, intelligence agencies and National Security Office held an emergency meeting to assess the situation and discuss countermeasures, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff statement.

It added the United States-South Korea combined forces are monitoring North Korea in real time, and that all necessary measures were being taken.

Duyeon Kim, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Centre for a New American Security, said North Korea had been aiming to make missiles that can evade defence systems, with “features that can fly them under the US and South Korea’s radars.”

“These types of missiles are especially threatening to South Korea and Japan and they’re weapons that can be used in or even start a conflict,” she said.

North Korea has increased its missile tests this year, including its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in more than four years on March 24, in defiance of international law.

In just the first four months of 2022, the North has conducted 12 tests; by comparison, it only conducted four tests in 2020, and eight in 2021.

The ICBM was reported to be its most formidable yet, though missile experts and a South Korean military official later said it may have been a less advanced weapon than previously believed.

Duyeon Kim said the tests could have several purposes: one being a message to the North Korean people that “their country is strong despite their apparent economic difficulties.”

North Korea also has “a domestic imperative to make and perfect the types of advanced weapons that Kim Jong Un ordered last year,” she said.

This year is an important one for the country because of several major dates – including the 10-year anniversary of Kim Jong Un’s rule and the 110th anniversary of the birth of its founder Kim Il Sung – one of the most important events in the North Korean calendar.

Lee Sang-hyun, president of the South Korean think tank Sejong Institute, said Kim may be under pressure “to show off his achievements.”

April holds many of those important dates, providing an opportunity “to show off to the world about their country’s missile and nuclear capabilities.”

Another reason for the recent tests could be to protest the US-South Korea joint military drills set to take place this month, experts said.

North Korea has long condemned these joint drills as posing a grave threat to its security, accusing the US of a “hostile policy” toward the country.