North Korea test-fired an upgraded 240mm guided multiple rocket launcher on Tuesday, KCNA reported Thursday. It said the rockets can reach 100 km in trajectory mode or 115 km in combined glide mode and would bolster firepower along the southern border.
KCNA said the test demonstrated the extended-range rockets' accuracy and superiority, attributing their guidance to an autonomous precision system. Pak Jong-chon, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, oversaw the test and stressed the need to concentrate the country's deadliest, most destructive attack forces on the southern border. Professor Lim Eul-chul of Kyungnam University said the precision guidance suggested North Korea could strike key facilities in the Seoul metropolitan area with an error margin of a few metres. Lim said this could threaten the densely populated capital area and might be intended to induce fear.
In a separate statement Thursday, Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said North Korea's nuclear-weapons status was irreversible and the country would become more resolute after the United States, South Korea and Japan reaffirmed their commitment to North Korea's complete denuclearisation at a trilateral meeting this week.
