Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 26
North Korea successfully tested a new tactical ballistic missile capable of carrying a super-large warhead, state media said Tuesday, with analysts suggesting the weapon could be nuclear-capable.
Pyongyang’s state media claimed it had successfully launched the Hwasongpho-11Da-4.5 missile, which it said was capable of carrying a 4.5 ton-class super-large warhead.
“The test-fire was conducted with a missile tipped with a simulated heavy warhead to verify flight stability and hit accuracy at the maximum range of 500 kilometres (310 miles) and the minimum range of 90 kilometres,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. That missile’s trajectory suggested a possible mid-air explosion over North Korea, the military has said, which could have led to debris falling on the country.
“It is extremely rare for test launches to be conducted inland, and the claim that they succeeded in such a launch is likely to be false,” Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung-jun told reporters Tuesday.
A super-large warhead, along with a spy military satellite and solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles, was among the advanced weapons that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to develop at a party congress in 2021.
In the KCNA report, the weapon was “described as a ‘super-large warhead’, deliberately omitting the word ‘nuclear’”, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.
“But since it is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, it can be considered a nuclear weapon,” he told AFP.
Source: AFP
