North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks at the unveiling of 250 new missile launchers in this photo release Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — North Korea showed off 250 new missile launchers over the weekend as the country’s leader announced delivery of the weapons to front-line units facing the southern border.
The launchers, made by the North’s arms industry, are designed to fire tactical ballistic missiles, according to North Korean state media, using a term for low-yield nuclear weapons.
A crowd, seemingly thousands strong, was on hand Sunday in Pyongyang to hear North Korean leader Kim Jong Un praise the munitions workers who built them.
“As you can see, we are now facing 250 new tactical ballistic missile launchers produced by munitions workers with their own strength and technology,” he said in his speech, posted online by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. “The armed equipment lined up in a huge column in front of us will be delivered to our military and take charge of important military activities in the border areas of [North Korea].”
North Korea unveils 250 new missile launchers in this photo release Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
The launchers, mass produced in less than a year, show the power of the North’s “self-reliant” defense industry and are just the first stage of planned missile force construction, Kim said.
“Every year, we will show the whole world the process of generational replacement of our new armed equipment without any filtering,” he said, adding that doing so deters war.
Across the border, U.S. efforts to foster more military cooperation between South Korea and Japan have borne fruit since President Joe Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held their first summit together last summer at Camp David, Md.
Since then, the nations have held unprecedented trilateral drills involving their air forces, navies and coast guards.
Meanwhile, Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in June in Pyongyang to provide mutual military assistance if either nation is attacked.
The U.S., South Korea and others have accused North Korea of providing weapons to Russia for the war in Ukraine in exchange for military and economic assistance.
North Korea unveils 250 new missile launchers in this photo release Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA)
The North is facing major changes as the security environment surrounding the country evolves, Kim said in his speech.
“This highlights the fact that our country has no reason to be satisfied with the current level of war deterrence,” he said. “Dialogue or confrontation can be our choice, but what we should be more thoroughly prepared for is confrontation.”
Kim’s speech indicated North Korea would continue to develop new weapons due to Washington and Seoul’s military pressure on Pyongyang.
“The main reason for the threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula is that North Korea has been illegally developing nuclear weapons and missiles and directly threatening [South Korea] and the world,” a spokesman for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, Koo Byoungsam, told reporters at a press briefing Monday.
