Photos released by the Korean Central News Agency show projectiles being fired from a transporter-erector-launcher equipped with four launcher tubes during North Korea’s first rocket test this year on March 2. (KCNA-Yonhap) |
In Monday’s launch, the North revealed improved rockets in its fifth run since an initial test in September the previous year. The two projectiles were fired some 20 seconds apart, as compared with 17 minutes in September.
The projectiles North Korea fires land in the East Sea between South Korea and Japan, March 2. (KCNA-Yonhap) |
Pyongyang’s rockets, world’s largest with a caliber of 600 millimeters, could incapacitate Seoul’s counter-fire systems, Shin noted, adding the projectiles could have carried multiple warheads this time. He pointed to plumes of smoke around the place they landed in the East Sea.
Kim Dong-yub, an analyst from Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said the North is ready to put the advanced rockets into combat operational, or has already done so. “The last four launches since last September were ‘trial runs.’ It isn’t this time, and that is a clear danger to us,” he said.
By Choi Si-young (siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)