The drone cruised underwater for 59 hours and then exploded in an exercise aimed at deterring South Korea and US forces: KCNA.
North Korea has tested a new nuclear-capable underwater attack drone designed to unleash a “radioactive tsunami” that would destroy enemy naval ships and ports, state media reported.
During a military exercise conducted this week led by leader Kim Jong Un, the North Korean military deployed and tested the new weapon system, whose task was to test the ability to trigger a “super-large” destroyer blast and wave, the country’s state news agency KCNA said on Friday.
“This underwater nuclear attack drone can be deployed on any coast and port, or deployed from a surface vessel,” KCNA said.
The news agency said the drone was launched off South Hamgyong province during Tuesday’s exercise and cruised underwater at a depth of about 80 to 150 meters (260 to 490 feet) for 59 hours and 12 minutes before it was launched detonated in waters off its east coast on Thursday.
KCNA did not elaborate on the drone’s nuclear capabilities.
The underwater drone system is designed to carry out sneak attacks in enemy waters, destroying naval strike groups and key operational ports, according to the news outlet.
North Korean state media notes that Kim Jong Un has overseen recent weapons testing, including a “new underwater offensive weapon system.” KCNA describes it as “the unmanned underwater nuclear attack ship ‘Haeil'”. (No previous indication that such a program existed in the DPRK.) pic.twitter.com/LHHp4V8B3D
— Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) March 23, 2023
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said the drone’s final aim point was a mock enemy port built in the waters of Hongwon Bay, according to the state media report.
The reported drone exercise comes as a US amphibious assault ship arrived in South Korea to conduct joint military exercises codenamed “Freedom Shield.” After Pyongyang’s unprecedented year of weapons tests and saber-rattling, the US and South Korea stepped up their defense cooperation and on March 13 inaugurated their largest joint military exercises in five years.
Last weekend, the two allies conducted air and sea exercises with US B-1B strategic bombers. Your navies and marine corps are ready to begin large-scale Ssangyong amphibious landing exercises. The exercises will continue for two weeks until April 3rd.
Yonhap said the North Korean news agency also blasted the joint US-South Korean drills, which it claimed had “brought the Korean peninsula’s military and political situation to an irreversibly dangerous point.”
North Korea has long claimed that Washington and Seoul conducted military drills as rehearsals for a future invasion, and that its own weapons tests came in response to such drills.
According to KCNA, Kim Jong Un “chaired” this week’s underwater drone exercise and said it should serve as a warning to Washington and Seoul to “recognize that the DPRK’s unlimited deterrent capability to deter nuclear war is expanding at an accelerated pace.”
DPRK is the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
In a separate demonstration of its military prowess this week, North Korea also confirmed it had fired four cruise missiles on Wednesday to practice conducting tactical nuclear strike missions. The missiles carried a “test warhead simulating a nuclear warhead” and flew 1,500 to 1,800 km (932 to 1,120 miles), KCNA news agency added on Friday.
South Korea’s military confirmed Thursday that North Korea fired four cruise missiles off the country’s east coast a day earlier.
KCNA said two Hwasal-1 strategic cruise missiles and two Hwasal-2 strategic cruise missiles launched in South Hamgyong province accurately hit their target in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan .
These launches come about a week after North Korea tested its largest and most powerful missile, a Hwasong-17 – its second ICBM test so far this year.
