Pyongyang confirms it tested super-large multiple rocket launcher

An undated photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows the test-fire of the super-large multiple launch rocket system at an undisclosed location in North Korea issued on 29 November. (EFE-EPA Photo)
 

Seoul, November 29 (EFE-EPA): North Korea confirmed Friday that it tested a super-large multiple launch rocket system a day earlier and that the country's leader oversaw the test, state media reported.

On Thursday, North Korea fired two projectiles from the launcher from Yeonpo in the country's eastern South Hamgyong province in a move apparently designed to increase pressure on the United States over their stalled denuclearization talks.

The missiles traveled around 380 kilometers (236 miles) eastward and reached a maximum altitude of 97 km, according to South Korean military authorities, before falling into the Sea of Japan (called the East Sea in the two Koreas).

North Korean state-run agency KCNA said that in addition to the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, other key figures of North Korea's weapons programs were also present at the launch, including Kim Jong-sik, deputy director of the Military (machine-building) Industry Department as well as Jang Chang-ha, president of the Academy of National Defense Science.

Kim Jong-un expressed "great satisfaction" with the test, which he said proved the weapon's "military and technical superiority and its firm reliability.”

The launch on Thursday was the 13th weapons test conducted by North Korea this year and the fourth using the super-large multiple rocket launcher, which is believed to be a system with four 600-millimeter launch tubes mounted on a mobile platform.

The regime has already tested this rocket launcher on three previous occasions this year, on Aug. 24, Sept. 10 and Oct. 31.

The latest test seems to be aimed at pressuring Washington to accept new conditions in the disarmament dialogue that has been deadlocked since earlier this year.

Bilateral negotiations have not advanced since a failed summit in February in Hanoi, where Washington refused to lift economic sanctions in return for what Pyongyang dismantling its nuclear assets.

Both parties held a working meeting in early October in Stockholm, Sweden, which ended with North Korea accusing Washington of failing to offer anything new and actively maintaining its "hostile policy".

North Korea says the White House has a deadline of the end of the year to offer alternative proposals and experts believe the regime could carry out new weapons tests from January if there is no progress, especially of intermediate-range missiles.