Pyongyang chose U.S. midterm election day for its latest show of hardware. State news agency KCNA reported on Thursday that the Missile Administration had launched a newly designed air-defence missile on Wednesday to confirm how it performs, and that a strategic cruise missile unit in the east of the country had used the same day to rehearse hitting a mock airfield.
The report credited the new system with proving a novel material, a multi-mode “intelligent” guidance method and its ability to spot and follow targets. It offered no figures on range, altitude or launch site. Senior party military official Kim Jong Sik oversaw the firing, and KCNA described both events as routine work to lift the technical level of the armed forces.
South Korea’s military had picked up several launches from the Sondok area of South Hamgyong province early on Wednesday, all heading out to sea and covering under 300 km. Officials in Seoul have not ruled out that a close-range ballistic missile was among them, something the North’s account leaves out entirely.
That makes four weapons events in a single week. Since last Thursday the North has shown off a 600mm multiple rocket launcher, a cluster munition for tactical missiles and a new warhead for cruise missiles. Analysts in the South link the burst of activity to Freedom Flag, an air exercise Seoul and Washington are currently staging together. Meanwhile the leader’s sister Kim Yo-jong has spent the week dismissing an American probe that pins the theft of more than $6 billion in crypto from Binance on Pyongyang’s hackers. Her remarks also hinted that Washington still has a “dialogue option”, even as testing continues at pace.
