The Coree du Nord has affirmed the same procedure to proceed to a new nuclear attack drone test in response to the commune military exercises of the Coree du Sud et des États-Unis, a technology where the maitrise for Pyongyang remains soumise à ask.
The test of this “strategic underwater weapons system” was carried out from April 4 to 7, the official KCNA news agency reported. The Haeil-2 type craft traveled a “simulated underwater distance of 1,000 km,” it added.
A technology that would be beyond the reach of Pyongyang
North Korea announced on March 23 a first test of this unprecedented device, which it said could “produce a large-scale radioactive tsunami.”
The weapon “precisionly exploded underwater,” KCNA added, saying the test “proves the reliability of the strategic underwater weapons system and its lethal strike capability.”
This is the third test of this device claimed by North Korea, after the one on March 23 and another announced on March 28.
Russia has also reportedly developed a similar weapon, the nuclear-capable Poseidon torpedoes, but mastering the complex technology required for such weapons still appears to be out of reach for North Korea, experts say.
A Russian technology transfer?
However, “even if the North may have exaggerated, to some extent, the level of success (of these tests), they seem to show Pyongyang’s confidence in this technology,” Choi Gi-il, professor of military studies at Sangji University.
Therefore, North Korea’s claims should not be “set aside on the grounds that they are exaggerated.” According to him, it cannot be ruled out that Pyongyang has benefited from a technology transfer from Russia for this weapon system.
Seoul and Washington, for their part, carried out joint air maneuvers on April 5 in which at least one US model B-52H bomber capable of carrying nuclear weapons intervened, according to the South Korean army.
From March 13 to 23, the two allies conducted their most important joint exercises in five years, dubbed “Shield of Freedom.”
A high level of activity in a nuclear complex.
Pyongyang considers these maneuvers as tests for an invasion of its territory and multiplies the weapons tests. The regime claimed in particular to have launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on March 16.
North Korea declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power last year, and in March Kim Jong Un ordered his troops to step up their “real war” exercises. He also called for accelerating the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons and diversifying the national arsenal.
Satellite images taken a month ago showed high levels of activity at North Korea’s main nuclear complex, Yongbyon, according to the US-based organization 38 North.
Source: BFM TV
