North Korea retests underwater nuclear drone
Seoul, Mar 28 (EFE).- The North Korean regime has once again tested its underwater drone with the capacity to generate nuclear tsunamis, state media reported Tuesday amid repeated weapons tests by Pyongyang and large-scale military drills that Seoul and Washington are carrying out in the south of the peninsula.
The test of this torpedo was carried out from Mar. 25 to 27 according to KCNA, which also reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected various models of atomic warheads on Tuesday at the Nuclear Weapons Institute in Pyongyang.
The announcement comes after the North Korea informed last Friday of the existence of this new underwater weapon, an apparent response to the spring exercises that the allies are carrying out in the South.
The drone, which KCNA refers to as “Haeil-1″ (Tsunami-1 in Korean), was launched from the east coast and the test warhead detonated in the target area after traveling 600 kilometers for 41 hours and 27 minutes.
“All tactical and technical specifications and underwater navigational and technical indices were correctly estimated and the reliability and safety of the weapon system were verified,” KCNA said.
On Monday, Seoul said that it doubts the capabilities of the drone, which is similar to the Russian Poseidon system, and said that it considers it is in a very early development phase.
Meanwhile, KCNA also reported Tuesday that Kim has “acquainted” himself with the “means for applying nuclear weapons, technological specifications and features of structural operation of new tactical nuclear weapons according to the purpose of the operation and targets, interchangeability with different weapons systems” during a meeting with Nuclear Weapons Institute officials and others.
Kim was also informed of progress in computerizing the combined nuclear weapons management system “Haekbangsoe” (Korean for Nuclear Trigger), “whose scientific accuracy, reliability and security have been strictly verified in the recent combined tactical drill simulating a nuclear counterattack,” KCNA detailed, referring to an exercise that the regime carried out 10 days ago.
KCNA also released photos of Kim inspecting various tactical nuclear warheads supposedly designed to be fitted to Hwasal-1 and Hwasal-2 strategic cruise missiles and KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles.
In this sense, the North Korean news agency also reported that the two missiles that the regime fired on Monday were “loaded with warheads for trial simulating nuclear warheads” and that they detonated about 500 meters above the simulated target on an islet near the city of Kim Chaek on the northeast coast, as published photos show. EFE
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