North Korea said it tested ballistic missiles with cluster-bomb warheads as part of a broader series of weapons demonstrations over three days, starting Monday, amid heightened regional tensions. In a report carried by its state media, North Korea said the tests included new weapons systems and demonstrated anti-aircraft weapons, “purported electromagnetic weapons systems” and carbon-fiber bombs, as well as missiles armed with cluster-munition warhead systems mounted on the nuclear-capable Hwasong-11.
The announcement came a day after South Korea’s military said it detected North Korea firing multiple missiles from an eastern coastal area in its second round of launches in two days. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles launched Wednesday flew 240 to 700 kilometers before falling into the sea, and it also detected at least one projectile launched Tuesday from an area near Pyongyang.
North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency said the latest tests featured cluster-bomb warheads on the Hwasong-11 ballistic missiles, describing the missiles as resembling Russia’s Iskander in design for low-altitude, maneuverable flight intended to evade missile defenses. KCNA said the launches confirmed that the short-range missile, when armed with such warheads, “can reduce to ashes any target covering an area of 6.5-7 hectares (16 to 17.2 acres) with the highest-density power.”
South Korea said it was analyzing the launches after the Wednesday firings and sharing information with the United States and Japan, but it did not provide specific assessments of North Korea’s claims of progress in its military capabilities. A South Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson, Jang Do-young, said at a briefing that the military was reviewing the launches, while declining to comment on the North’s characterization of what the tests showed.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said none of the weapons fired Wednesday entered waters within its exclusive economic zone. The U.S. military said the North Korean launches on Tuesday and Wednesday posed no immediate threat to the United States or its allies.
The episode also highlighted the strained relationship between the Koreas, with diplomacy largely stalled. In a statement Tuesday night, Jang Kum Chol, a first vice minister at Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry, said South Korea would always remain North Korea’s “most hostile enemy state,” and mocked Seoul’s liberal government for seeking to revive restore long-stalled dialogue, calling its officials “world-startling fools.”
North Korea leader Kim Jong-un has suspended virtually all diplomacy with Seoul and Washington since the collapse of his nuclear talks with President Donald Trump in 2019. Since then, North Korea has accelerated development of nuclear-capable missiles that it says are aimed at deterring or threatening U.S. allies in Asia and the U.S. mainland, while also pursuing closer ties with Russia, China and other countries in confrontations with the United States.
KCNA said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi would arrive in North Korea on Thursday for a two-day trip, as another round of diplomacy between the two governments.