Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a long-range artillery firing drill, state media said on Tuesday, a day after South Korea said Pyongyang had fired what appeared to be two ballistic missiles.
The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Monday that the North fired two projectiles believed to be short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast in the first such launches since Pyongyang warned earlier this year that it would show off a “new strategic weapon”, reports the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency
Pyongyang’s state media said on Tuesday that Kim oversaw a “firepower strike drill” by long-range artillery units.
“As he ordered the sub-units to start the fire, the men of long-range artillery pieces on the front opened fire all at once,” Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a report.
“He expressed great satisfaction with the fact that the artillerymen are prepared to make a rapid reaction to any circumstances and perfectly carry out their firepower combat duties.”
The report did not elaborate on the details of the weapons used at the training, but photos released by the state media showed a rocket being fired from what appeared to be a super-large multiple rocket launcher North Korea tested last year, Yonhap News Agency said.
North Korean media, however, did not disclose where the drill was conducted, but the South Korean military earlier said the projectiles were launched from near the North’s eastern coastal town of Wonsan.
Army Gen. Pak Jong-chon, chief of the General Staff of the North Korean Army, and other commanding officers accompanied the leader, KCNA said.
North Korea conducted 13 major weapons tests last year, and Monday’s projectiles were fired within a 20-second interval and flew around 240 km, reaching a maximum altitude of around 35 km, according to the South’s JCS.
Monday’s firings came days after the first anniversary of the second summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Hanoi.
Little progress has been made in the denuclearization talks since the two-day meeting collapsed without a deal amid the two sides’ wide differences over Pyongyang’s denuclearization steps and Washington’s sanctions relief.
