(Seoul) North Korea said on Saturday it had carried out a new test of an underwater nuclear attack drone, in response to joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States, a technology whose mastery by Pyongyang remains questionable.
The test of this “underwater strategic weapon system” was held from April 4 to 7, the official KCNA news agency said. The Haeil-2 type craft traveled a “simulated underwater distance of 1,000 km”, she added.
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 “accurately exploded underwater”, KCNA added, saying the test “proves the reliability of the underwater strategic weapon system and its lethal attack capability”.
This is the third test of this device claimed by North Korea, after that of March 23 and another announced on March 28.
Russia has also reportedly developed a similar weapon – nuclear-capable Poseidon torpedoes – but mastering the complex technology required for such weapons still appears to be beyond North Korea’s reach, experts say.
However, “even if the North may have exaggerated, to a certain extent, the level of success (of these tests), they seem to show Pyongyang’s confidence in this technology”, tempers with AFP Choi Gi-il, professor military studies at Sangji University.
North Korean claims should therefore not be “swept away on the grounds that they are exaggerated”. According to him, it cannot be excluded that Pyongyang benefited from a transfer of technology from Russia for this weapon system.
High nuclear activity
Seoul and Washington for their part carried out joint aerial maneuvers on April 5, involving at least one American bomber model B-52H capable of carrying nuclear weapons, according to the South Korean army.
From March 13 to 23, the two allies conducted their most important joint exercises in five years, dubbed “Freedom Shield”.
Pyongyang considers these maneuvers as rehearsals for an invasion of its territory and multiplies the weapons tests. The regime notably claimed 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 intensify their exercises for “real war”. 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 a high level of activity at North Korea’s main nuclear complex, Yongbyon, according to the US-based organization 38 North.