North Korean border guards have received 250 launchers for new ballistic missiles. Kim Jong Un called the new equipment the army’s “key offensive weapon,” Korean media reported.
The olive green mobile launchers were displayed during a special “handover” ceremony in the capital Pyongyang on Sunday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
Before the ceremony, Kim Jong Un inspected the launchers, which are being “put into service as a new key offensive weapon of the North Korean armed forces,” and then ordered them to be handed over to the border guards.
Kim Jong Un called the new equipment “another stepping stone to add great vitality to the North Korea’s name and national flag and sharply enhance the North Korea’s national prestige, which will display might as a powerful sword to defend national sovereignty and safeguard peace.”
The missile launchers are “advanced tactical attack weapons,” Kim said in his speech.
Tactical and technical specifications of the launchers and missiles were not given. However, Bloomberg, citing military experts, reported that the launchers in question are probably those capable of launching Hwasong 11D short-range ballistic missiles. The missile was tested at a distance of 100 to 300 kilometres. It is noted that they are capable of hitting targets in most of South Korea.
According to Han Kwon-hee, a spokesman for the Korea Defence Research Association, this was the first time North Korea has made public the scale of arms deliveries to its border units, AFP reported.
North Korea has conducted a number of ballistic missile tests since the beginning of the year. In early July, North Korea’s General Administration of Rocket Science conducted a successful test of the new Hwasong-11 tactical ballistic missile. The new missile has an ultra-large warhead weighing 4.5 tonnes. The missile has a maximum range of 500 kilometres.
