North Korea tests missiles as Kim strengthens his nuclear and conventional weapons

SEOUL, South Korea –

North Korea said on Thursday that leader Kim Jong Un had overseen the successful tests of two types of missiles – one designed to carry a “super-large conventional warhead” and the other presumably a nuclear warhead. He ordered the country's military capabilities to be strengthened in order to be able to fend off threats from the United States.

The tests appear to be the same as the numerous missile launches North Korea carried out on Wednesday, according to neighboring countries, continuing its series of weapons demonstrations as confrontations with the United States and South Korea escalate.

Korea's official Central News Agency said Kim supervised the launch of the newly built Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 ballistic missile, which carries a mock warhead of a “4.5-ton super-large conventional warhead.” It said the test firing tested the weapon's ability to accurately hit a target at a range of 320 kilometers (200 miles), suggesting it is a weapon aimed at targets in South Korea.

According to KCNA, Kim also led the launch of an improved “strategic” cruise missile, a term that implies the weapon was designed to carry a nuclear warhead.

After the tests, according to KCNA, Kim stressed the need to “further expand nuclear forces” and “also gain overwhelming offensive power in the field of conventional weapons.” Kim is reported to have said that North Korea could only thwart its enemies' invasion plans if it had strong military power.

KCNA published photos of a missile hitting a ground target. South Korea's military said later on Thursday that it believed both ballistic and cruise missiles fired by North Korea the previous day had landed in the mountainous North Korean region.

North Korea typically conducts missile test launches off its east coast, and it is highly unusual for the country to fire missiles at land targets, presumably out of concern about potential damage to the ground if the weapons land in unintended areas.

Jung Chang Wook, head of the Korea Defense Study Forum think tank in Seoul, said North Korea was likely trying to show that it was confident in the accuracy of its new ballistic missile. Jung said the missile's warhead was designed to attack ground targets, but North Korea does not have weapons that can penetrate deep into the earth and destroy underground structures.

The first known test of the Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 missile took place in early July. North Korea said the July test was also successful, but the South Korean military denied that claim, saying one of the two missiles fired by North Korea took an unusual trajectory during the initial phase of its flight and then impacted in an uninhabited area near the capital, Pyongyang. North Korea has not released photos of the July launches.

North Korea is pushing to introduce a range of sophisticated weapons systems designed to attack both South Korea and the US mainland to counter the growing security threats posed by its rivals. Many foreign experts believe North Korea ultimately wants to use its expanded arsenal as leverage to win greater concessions in future negotiations with the US.

Concerns about North Korea were heightened last week when the country released photos of a secret facility enriching uranium for nuclear weapons. During a visit to the facility, Kim called for greater efforts to produce “exponentially” more nuclear weapons, according to KCNA.

It was unclear whether the facility was located at North Korea's main nuclear complex, Yongbyon. But it was the first unveiling of a uranium enrichment facility by the North since it showed visiting American scientists led by nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker a facility at the country's main nuclear complex at Yongbyon in 2010.

In an analysis article co-authored with another expert, Robert Carlin, and published on Wednesday on the North Korea-focused website 38 North, Hecker explained that the centrifuge hall shown in the recent North Korean photos was not the same one he saw in November 2010.

Hecker and Carlin said they believed the new centrifuges would offer “only a modest increase in capacity,” but North Korea could increase its enrichment capacity simply by building additional centrifuge facilities.

In another joint analysis, also published on 38 North on Friday, other experts said the centrifuges shown in the photos were not the ones Hecker observed, but a more modern model. They said the images sent “a strong message that the country has sufficient capacity and the continued will to expand its nuclear program.”