Tag: North Korea

It appears that North Korea is signaling that they have cluster munitions just like Iran has used against Israel:

North Korea has tested cluster bombs in its latest launch of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, supervised by leader Kim Jong-un, state media reported Monday.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published the report of the launch of the Hwasong-11 Ra tactical ballistic missile a day after South Korea’s military detected multiple short-range ballistic missiles launched toward the East Sea at around 6:10 a.m. from North Korea’s Sinpho area.

The KCNA said the purpose of the test-launch was to evaluate the power of the “cluster bomb warhead and fragmentation mine warhead” fitted to the weapon system.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Since Iran has been using cluster bomb munitions it looks like North Korea wanted to show the world they have them too:

North Korea said Thursday that it has test-fired a tactical ballistic missile tipped with a cluster bomb warhead, claiming it can “reduce to ashes” any targeted areas with the highest-density power.

North Korea fired the surface-to-surface missile Hwasong-11Ka tipped with a cluster bomb warhead as part of its tests of “important” weapons systems that were conducted from Monday to Wednesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The test confirmed that the missile “can reduce to ashes any target covering an area of 6.5-7 hectares with the highest-density power,” the KCNA said.

Korea Times

You can read more at that link.

An intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead being launched Wednesday, in this photo released by Korea Central News Agency the following day. Yonhap

Here is an interesting bit of history which China clearly saw as empty threats from North Korea:

This photo, taken Nov. 14, 1995, shows then Chinese President Jiang Zemin (L) holding summit talks with South Korean President Kim Young-sam during his visit to Seoul. (Yonhap)

North Korea sharply reacted to growing relations between South Korea and China in the mid-1990s, even threatening to establish formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in retaliation, declassified dossiers showed Tuesday. 

Pyongyang’s objection came as China was arranging its then leader Jiang Zemin’s visit to Seoul for November 1995, three years after Beijing and Seoul established diplomatic ties in the post–Cold War era, a move that had angered the North, its traditional ally. 

Diplomatic documents from 1995, released by the foreign ministry, revealed that the North had lashed out at China for drawing closer to the South in a June 1995 meeting of state think tank experts. 

When the Chinese side voiced concerns over Pyongyang’s approach to Taiwan at the time, North Korean experts reacted sharply by asking, “Why shouldn’t North Korea develop relations with Taiwan when China and South Korea were engaging in high-level exchanges?” according to the dossiers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting if anything will be publicly disclosed on what these two leaders discussed during their summit:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has welcomed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Pyongyang, as the Belarusian leader made his first official visit to the North, according to the North’s state media Thursday.

The ceremony to welcome Lukashenko took place at Kim Il Sung Square on Wednesday as he arrived in Pyongyang for a two-day official visit at the invitation of the North’s leader, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Both North Korea and Belarus have supported Russia in its invasion against Ukraine, with Pyongyang sending troops and weapons and Minsk allowing Moscow to uses territory for the invasion.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is going to be interesting to see if over time defectors from this area come down with a higher rate of cancer like what happened to people exposed to radiation at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing sites:

A quarter of North Korean defectors from regions near the northeastern Punggye-ri nuclear test site have shown chromosome mutations possibly attributable to exposure to radioactivity, data showed Monday. 

Radioactive exposure tests conducted in 2024 by the Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences (KIRAMS) on 35 North Korean defectors from eight regions near the Punggye-ri nuclear test site found that 12 of them, or 34 percent, showed chromosome mutations possibly linked to radiation exposure, according to the unification ministry.

The regions include Kilju, Kimchaek and Paekam. Since 2006, the North has conducted all of its six nuclear tests at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, located in Kilju County.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.