North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, accompanied by his teenage daughter, observed a live-fire test of multiple rocket launch systems, state media reported Sunday.
The Korean Central News Agency said Kim watched a strike drill involving twelve 600mm-calibre, ultraprecision rocket launchers off North Korea’s east coast on Saturday.
South Korea’s military said Saturday it detected about 10 ballistic missiles fired from North Korea’s capital region toward the eastern sea. South Korea’s national security council called the launches a provocation that violated U.N. Security Council resolutions banning any ballistic activities by North Korea.
KCNA cited Kim as saying the drill would expose enemies within the 420-kilometer (260-mile) striking range, to “uneasiness” and to “a deep understanding of the destructive power of tactical nuclear weapon,” and it appeared to refer to South Korea and U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.
The KCNA report also included what it attributed to Kim, saying: “If this weapon is used, the opponent’s military infrastructure within its striking range can never survive.”
KCNA photos showed Kim and his daughter, reportedly named Kim Ju Ae and aged about 13, walking near huge olive-green launch trucks as weapons were launched from them. The report said the girl has accompanied her father at numerous high-profile events like missile tests and military parades since late 2022, fueling outside speculation that she is being groomed as his heir.
The AP report said experts view North Korea’s large-sized rocket launchers as blurring the boundaries between artillery systems and ballistic missiles because they can create their own thrust and are guided during delivery. It also said North Korea has said some of these systems are capable of delivering nuclear warheads.
The AP account tied the timing to the springtime U.S.-South Korea Freedom Shield training, described as a computer-simulated command post exercise, which is to run through March 19. The report said North Korea often reacts to the exercise with its own weapons tests and “fiery rhetoric.”