North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the testing of a new type of tactical guided weapon on Wednesday, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Thursday, ONA reports citing Reuters.
It is North Korea’s first public weapons test since the second U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi ended with no agreement in February.
KCNA did not describe exactly what the weapon is, including whether it was a missile or another type of weapon, but “tactical” implies a short-range weapon, as opposed to the long-range ballistic missiles that have been seen as a threat to the United States.
Nevertheless, the weapon has a “peculiar mode of guiding flight” and “a powerful warhead,” KCNA said.
Kim said “the completion of the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power” of the North Korean army, according to KCNA.
Last year, Kim had also overseen a test of an unidentified “tactical weapon” in November which could protect North Korea like a “steel wall”, according to state media, which experts said was part of Kim’s initiative to shift the mainstay of the conventional military power from a nearly 1.3 million-strong army to high-tech weapons.
In April 2018, Kim had said North Korea would stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles, because Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities had been “verified.”
There was no immediate response to requests for comment from the White House, Pentagon or U.S. State Department.
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