SEOUL, April 26, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the
test-firing of a multiple rocket launcher, state media said Friday, its
latest weapons test after accusations Pyongyang has supplied arms to Russia.

The largely isolated country has recently bolstered military ties with
Russia, and Pyongyang thanked Moscow this month for its UN Security Council
veto blocking the renewal of a panel of UN experts that monitored
international weapons sanctions on Kim's government.

South Korea and the United States accuse North Korea of supplying weapons to
Russia, despite UN sanctions banning any such moves.

And analysts have said the nuclear-armed North could be testing and ramping
up production of artillery and cruise missiles before sending them to Russia
for use in Ukraine.

The "flight features, (and) hit and concentration indices" of the "240 mm
shell of a multiple rocket launcher", made at Pyongyang's new defence
industry unit, were "evaluated very satisfactorily" during the test,
according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

Kim stressed "the need... to surely carry out the munitions production plan
for this year in a qualitative way," KCNA said.

The rocket launcher "with new technology would bring about a strategic change
in bolstering up the artillery force" of the North's army, Kim said,
according to KCNA.

Earlier this week, Pyongyang said Kim had overseen the country's first ever
"nuclear trigger" drills, which involved simulating a nuclear counterattack
as a warning to enemies.

Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul,
said based on the Friday announcement, the North seems to have achieved "some
progress" in integrating guidance technology for precision strikes targeting
South Korea's capital region.

"The entire country resembles a missile defense industry expo," he told AFP.

Last year, North Korea conducted a record number of missile tests in defiance
of UN sanctions in place since 2006 and despite warnings from Washington and
Seoul.

Pyongyang declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear weapons state in 2022.

This year, Pyongyang has declared South Korea its "principal enemy",
jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and threatened war over "even
0.001 mm" of territorial infringement.