This photo provided by the North Korean government, shows what it says a test fire of tactical ballistic missile at an undisclosed place in North Korea Thursday, May 17, 2024.

North Korea has test-fired a tactical ballistic missile equipped with a “new autonomous navigation system”, state media said on May 18, with leader Kim Jong Un vowing to boost the country’s nuclear force.

Mr. Kim oversaw the Friday test-launch into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, on a mission to evaluate the “accuracy and reliability of the autonomous navigation system”, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

The launch was the latest in a string of ever more sophisticated tests by North Korea, which has fired off cruise missiles, tactical rockets and hypersonic weapons in recent months, in what the nuclear-armed, U.N.-sanctioned country says is a drive to upgrade its defences.

The Friday launch came hours after leader Mr. Kim’s powerful sister Kim Yo Jong denied allegations by Seoul and Washington that Pyongyang is shipping weapons to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine.

Seoul’s military on Friday described the test as “several flying objects presumed to be short-range ballistic missiles” from North Korea’s eastern Wonsan area into waters off its coast.

The suspected missiles travelled around 300 kilometres (186 miles) before splashing down in waters between South Korea and Japan, the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said.

“The accuracy and reliability of the autonomous navigation system were verified through the test fire,” Pyongyang’s KCNA said Saturday, adding leader Kim expressed “great satisfaction” over the launch.

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In a separate report released on May 18, KCNA said Mr. Kim visited a military production facility the previous day and urged for “more rapidly bolstering the nuclear force” of the nation “without halt and hesitation”.

During the visit, he said the “enemies would be afraid of and dare not to play with fire only when they witness the nuclear combat posture of our state”, according to KCNA.

Pyongyang’s nuclear force “will meet a very important change and occupy a remarkably raised strategic position” when its munitions production plan, aimed to be completed by 2025, is carried out, it added.

Putin’s attention

Seoul and Washington have accused North Korea of sending arms to Russia, which would violate rafts of United Nations sanctions on both countries, with experts saying the recent spate of testing may be of weapons destined for use on battlefields in Ukraine.

North Korea is barred by U.N. sanctions from any tests using ballistic technology, but its key ally Moscow used its U.N. Security Council veto in March to effectively end U.N. monitoring of violations, for which Pyongyang has specifically thanked Russia.

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But leader Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong said Friday that Pyongyang had “no intention to export our military technical capabilities to any country”, adding that the North’s priority was “to make the war readiness and war deterrent of our army more perfect in quality and quantity”.

She accused Seoul and Washington of “misleading the public opinion” with their allegations that Pyongyang was transferring arms to Russia.

The Friday launches come as Russian leader Vladimir Putin was in China on Friday, the final day of a visit aiming to promote crucial trade with Beijing – North Korea’s most important ally – and win greater support for his war effort in Ukraine.

North Korea’s latest weapons tests were likely intended to attract the attention of Mr. Putin while he was in China, said Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies.

The North would benefit greatly from an expected visit by Putin to Pyongyang, and “they want their country to be used as a military logistics base during Russia’s ongoing war (in Ukraine)“, he told AFP.

Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said: “China and Russia’s irresponsible handling of North Korea, riding on the new Cold War dynamics, is further encouraging Pyongyang’s nuclear armament.”

Inter-Korean relations are at one of their lowest points in years, with Pyongyang declaring Seoul its “principal enemy”.

It has jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement.

A news program airs a file image of a missile launch by North Korea at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on April 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korea fired a medium-range ballistic missile on April 2, with South Korea, the United States and Japan conducting a joint aerial exercise involving nuclear-capable B-52H bombers just hours later.

Pyongyang’s latest launch comes less than two weeks after Kim supervised a solid-fuel engine test for a new intermediate-range hypersonic missile (IRBM), with experts suggesting the launch on April 2 could be of the same weapon.

Seoul’s military said the missile, launched early on April 2, flew around 600 km before splashing down in waters between South Korea and Japan.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military was analysing the launch, with a defence official telling the Yonhap news agency that it had likely involved a hypersonic warhead “on top of the delivery system used in the engine test last month”.

North Korea has long sought to master more advanced hypersonic and solid fuel technologies, to make its missiles more able to neutralise South Korean-US missile defence systems and threaten America’s regional military bases.

In January, Pyongyang said it had launched a solid-fuel IRBM tipped with a hypersonic warhead, then last month flagged the successful engine test of the “new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile”.

Hypersonic missiles are faster and can manoeuvre mid-flight, making them harder to track and intercept, while solid-fuel missiles do not need to be fuelled before launch, making them harder to find and destroy, as well as quicker to use.

Seoul’s defence ministry said it conducted a joint aerial exercise with Washington and Tokyo on Tuesday involving a nuclear-capable B-52H bomber and F-15K fighter jets near the Korean peninsula.

The drill aimed to “improve joint readiness against the North’s nuclear and missile threats,” it said.

The Tuesday launch “appears to be part of Pyongyang’s missile development blueprint, including hypersonic weapons,” said Han Kwon-hee of the Korea Association of Defence Industry Studies.

It seems Kim is developing such technology domestically, rather than with Russian help “given the sensitive nature of the weapons”, he added.

Not staying quiet

The launch comes just days after a Russian veto at the United Nations ended UN expert monitoring of North Korean sanctions violations, amid a probe into alleged arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang.

North Korea has yet to comment on the development.

It also comes just over a week before South Korea votes in a general election, in which the party of hawkish President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has taken a tough line with Pyongyang, is seeking to win back control of the parliament.

“The Kim regime prioritises advancing its military capabilities and doesn’t care to stay quiet during the South Korean legislative election campaign,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

“But firing an intermediate-range missile lacks the shock value of a full-range ICBM launch or a nuclear test, so it’s unlikely to swing any National Assembly seats.”

Pyongyang has been under a raft of sanctions since its second nuclear test in 2009, but the development of its nuclear and weapons programmes has continued unabated.

So far this year, the nuclear-armed North has declared South Korea its “principal enemy”, jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement.

Last month, the United States and South Korea staged one of their major annual joint military exercises, prompting angry retorts and live-fire drills from nuclear-armed Pyongyang, which condemns all such exercises as rehearsals for invasion.

Seoul is one of Washington’s key regional allies, and the United States has stationed about 27,000 American soldiers in the South to help protect it against North Korea.