SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw firing drills involving “newly-equipped super-large” multiple rocket launchers, state media said on Tuesday (Mar 19), a day after Seoul said Pyongyang had fired several short-range ballistic missiles.
The United States and South Korea wrapped up one of their major annual joint military exercises last week, prompting angry retorts and live-fire drills from nuclear-armed Pyongyang, which condemns all such exercises as rehearsals for invasion.
Seoul’s military said Monday it had detected the launch of “multiple short-range ballistic missiles” by the North, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the South Korean capital for talks.
The super-large multiple rocket launcher, referred to as KN-25 by the Seoul-Washington military, is a short-range ballistic missile, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
The North has claimed the weapon has the capability to be equipped with a tactical nuclear warhead.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim guided the drills on Monday that tested the “real war capabilities” of 600mm multiple rocket launchers as he stressed the importance of “war preparations”.
The drills also involved simulating an aerial explosion of a shell from the super-large multiple rocket launcher at a predetermined altitude above the target, KNCA said.
Kim said the multiple rocket launcher would help the North “block and suppress the possibility of war with the constant perfect preparedness to collapse the capital of the enemy”, according to the report.
During the drills, North Korean artillerymen “demonstrated their excellent crack-shot artillery marksmanship and prompt and thorough combat readiness,” it added.
“Massive shells of super-large multiple rocket launchers, which were fired from the sharp gun barrels like lava, flew to the target with the flame of annihilating the enemy,” it said.
Source: CNA
