North Korea tests power of cluster warhead for tactical ballistic missile, signals operational deployment by year-end

[Financial News] North Korea said it had conducted a test to assess the power of a cluster warhead mounted on a ballistic missile and would deploy four types of related warheads with military units by the end of the year. This is seen as signaling its intention to move beyond evaluating the warheads’ performance and put various types into actual operations.
The Korean Central News Agency reported on the 1st that the DPRK Missile Administration had conducted a test on the 31st of last month to evaluate the combat applicability and power of the “cluster combat unit,” a cluster warhead for a tactical ballistic missile. The test was overseen by Kim Jong-sik, a member of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea and first vice department director of the Party’s Central Committee.
North Korea released the test results, claiming that a standard-type cluster warhead could devastate a target area of about 12 hectares with a high density of strikes. A cluster munition is a weapon that contains multiple submunitions in a single warhead. When the warhead explodes in the air, the submunitions scatter across a wide area and can attack multiple targets simultaneously.
Images released by North Korea showed a missile launch, submunitions dispersing in the air, and successive explosions in the target area. They also showed structures being destroyed that were believed to be mock-ups of ROK Armed Forces aircraft hangars, ammunition depots, or artillery positions.
The head of the Missile Administration said cluster warheads were classified into four categories, including special-purpose and standard types, and that by the end of this year, units would be able to select and use them according to their operational objectives and targets. This is interpreted as a move beyond developing the related weapons systems to diversifying warhead types and pursuing their operational use.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that North Korea had launched a missile toward the Yellow Sea the previous day from the area around Jeongju County, North Pyongan Province. South Korea and the United States said they had tracked related developments and maintained a state of readiness even before the launch. North Korea did not disclose specific details, including the launch site and time or the missile’s flight distance.
Shin Jong-woo, secretary-general of the Korea Defense and Security Forum, assessed that the missile launched this time was the Hwasong-11Na (KN-24), known as North Korea’s version of ATACMS. North Korea also conducted a test launch in April of a Hwasong-11D-type missile equipped with a cluster munition, with State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong Un in attendance.
Meanwhile, the results of this test were not published in Rodong Sinmun, the Workers’ Party of Korea newspaper read by North Korean residents.

[email protected] Jung Sang-hee Reporter