North Korea tests a multiple launch rocket system in this image released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, March 19, 2024. (KCNA)
PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — North Korea’s leader reportedly oversaw the firing of six “super-large” multiple rocket launchers Monday, an act South Korea and Japan described as ballistic-missile launches the previous day.
Kim Jong Un supervised the drill demonstrating “real war capabilities” at an unspecified training area, the Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday.
The 600 mm rockets were fired simultaneously; a separate test simulated an opposing strike by an incoming shell at a preset altitude above the target, KCNA reported with photos showing an explosion on an island.
North Korea’s 600 mm rocket systems are capable of carrying tactical nuclear warheads, KCNA reported last year.
Kim called for “the need to continuously increase the number of batteries” of the mobile launchers and described its operators as the “main force of the war,” according to KCNA.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un the test of a multiple launch rocket system in this image released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, March 19, 2024. (KCNA)
Those launches took place the same day the Japanese and South Korean militaries said the regime fired several short-range ballistic missiles from its eastern coast.
Japan’s military reported Monday that North Korea fired three short-range weapons that flew at a maximum altitude of 30 miles before falling outside the country’s exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported the same day that multiple short-range ballistic missiles flew more than 185 miles before splashing down.
There may be discrepancies when counting the launches due to the simultaneous firing of munitions, Lee Chang-hyun, deputy spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news briefing Tuesday.
Lee said South Korea’s military classified Monday’s artillery rockets as ballistic missiles due to the projectile’s capabilities and that Pyongyang fired more than the six shown in KCNA’s photos.
In a statement following the launches Monday, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command also referred to the North’s projectiles as ballistic missiles.
Lee said South Korea, Japan and the United States are sharing their data on North Korea’s launches, including those fired Monday.
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo activated a real-time data-sharing system on North Korea’s missile launches in December to better detect the communist regime’s threat.
North Korea frequently describes some of its missiles as artillery rounds despite them being much larger, Yang Uk, an associate research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday.
“In this case, the projectile is described as 600 mm in diameter — you cannot call it artillery [rounds],” he said. “It’s only natural that we call it a short-range ballistic missile.”
North Korea tests a multiple launch rocket system in this image released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, March 19, 2024. (KCNA)
North Korea has been prohibited from conducting ballistic missile tests by the U.N. Security Council resolutions since 2006.
Monday’s launch was North Korea’s second ballistic missile test of the year. The regime last fired a solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew about 620 miles on Jan. 14 and around 350 artillery shells toward its southern maritime border the same month.
The launch comes four days after U.S. and South Korean troops concluded their 11-day Freedom Shield exercise throughout South Korea. Around 48 joint drills were conducted in the semiannual exercise on air, land, sea and cyberspace. KCNA typically characterizes U.S. and South Korean exercises as rehearsals for invasions of the North.
Kim conducted his own military drills throughout the duration of Freedom Shield. On March 7, he oversaw North Korean troops clearing buildings at a military base and in the following week previewed tank drills, according to KCNA.
