Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KNCA) said Kim Jong Un had overseen the launch of the country’s a newly built Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 ballistic missile. The weapon was said to be tipped with a dummy “4.5-ton super-large conventional warhead.”
KCNA said the test-firing was meant to test the ability to hit a target 320 kilometers (200 miles) away, suggesting South Korean assets were the hypothetical subjects of the operation. The news agency also said Kim had guided the launch of an improved “strategic” cruise missile – implying the missile had been to carry a nuclear warhead.
Pyongyang has previously tested the missile to verify the flight stability and accuracy of a weapon carrying such a high payload. The tests appear to be the same ones that several neighboring countries said North Korea had carried out on Wednesday, only the latest in a series of weapons displays.
Kim was said to have stressed the need to continue to “bolster up the nuclear force” and acquire “overwhelming offensive capability in the field of conventional weapons,” as well as nuclear ones, according to KCNA.
