North Korea claimed Thursday it successfully test-fired a new tactical ballistic missile equipped with a super-large warhead and an improved strategic cruise missile on the previous day, state media reported.
The new-type tactical ballistic missile, called the Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5, was tipped with a 4.5-ton super-large conventional warhead in Wednesday’s launches conducted by the Missile Administration, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“Its test-fire was aimed at verifying the accuracy of hit at medium range of 320 km and explosive power of the super-large warhead with a missile loaded with such a warhead,” the report said. The administration also conducted a test-fire of strategic cruise missile whose performance has been highly upgraded for its combat use.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un guided the test-fires, and expressed great satisfaction over the test results, the KCNA said.
“Such tests and steady improvement of performance of weapons and equipment through them are directly rela
ted to the grave threat of outside forces to the state security environment of the DPRK,” Kim was quoted as saying.
DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“The military and political situation in the region threatening the present state security environment indicates that the work for bolstering up the military capability for self-defense should be the most important affair of the country,” he said.
The South Korean military said Wednesday it detected multiple short-range ballistic missiles northeastward from the area north of Pyongyang and the missiles flew about 400 km.
Source: Kuwait News Agency