North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a factory producing new multiple rocket launchers, praising their destructive capability a day after Pyongyang reported cruise missile test-fires.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has inspected a factory producing newly developed multiple rocket launchers, praising the weapons’ destructive potential, according to state media reports released on Tuesday, a day after the country announced cruise missile test-fires.
Kim’s visit followed Pyongyang’s announcement that it had conducted a test-fire of two strategic long-range cruise missiles in a display of “combat readiness” against foreign threats. Accompanied by senior officials from North Korea’s missile programme, Kim said the new weapons system would serve as his military’s “main strike means”, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
He described the multiple rocket system as a “super-powerful weapon system as it can annihilate the enemy through sudden precise strike with high accuracy and devastating power”, KCNA said, adding that it would be “used in large quantities for concentrated attack in military operations”. State media images showed Kim standing beside the large missile systems inside a vast factory decorated with propaganda slogans.
Regional tensions and military assessments
North Korea remains technically at war with South Korea, and analysts have long assessed that its extensive artillery arsenal would play a central role if conflict were to erupt on the peninsula. A 2020 study by the RAND think tank said North Korean artillery systems could inflict 10,000 casualties in just an hour if aimed at major population centres such as the South Korean capital, Seoul.
Pyongyang has also sharply increased missile testing in recent years. Analysts say the effort is intended to improve precision strike capabilities, challenge the United States as well as South Korea, and test weapons before potentially exporting them to Russia.
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