24th March 2023 – (Pyongyang) In a recent series of military drills, North Korea has tested a new weapon system that is designed to unleash a “radioactive tsunami.” The state media announced on Friday that the country had successfully deployed and test-fired an underwater nuclear attack drone, which is capable of destroying enemy naval vessels and ports.
The mission of this “secret weapon” is to set off a “super-scale” destructive wave, the KCNA news agency reported. The drone can be deployed at any coast and port, or towed by a surface ship for operation. It was put in the water off South Hamgyon province on Tuesday and detonated a test warhead on Thursday after cruising for 59 hours and 12 minutes at a depth of 80 to 150 meters.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “guided” this exercise and said it should serve as a warning to the United States and South Korea to “realise the DPRK’s unlimited nuclear war deterrence capability being bolstered up at a greater speed.” DPRK is the acronym for North Korea’s official name.
KCNA reported that the drills were commanded by the North’s Central Military Commission of the Worker’s Party “in order to alert the enemy to an actual nuclear crisis and verify the reliability of the nuclear force for self-defense.”
The recent test comes after a record-breaking year of weapons tests and growing nuclear threats from Pyongyang. As a result, Seoul and Washington have ramped up security cooperation, and on March 13, they kicked off their largest joint military drills in five years, known as Freedom Shield.
KCNA reported that on Wednesday, North Korea fired strategic cruise missiles “tipped with a test warhead simulating a nuclear warhead.” Two “Hwasal-1”-type strategic cruise missiles and two “Hwasal-2”-type strategic cruise missiles were launched in South Hamgyong province, accurately hitting the target set in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
The South Korean military had reported the firing of multiple cruise missiles from the North on Wednesday. This launch comes about a week after Pyongyang test-fired its largest and most powerful missile, a Hwasong-17, its second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test this year.
North Korea last year declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power, and Kim recently called for an “exponential” increase in weapons production, including tactical nuclear weapons.