North Korea has test-fired a new “ultra-precision” intelligent rocket to be deployed across its navy, state media said yesterday, in the latest evidence that Pyongyang is stepping up its development of missile technology.
The exercise was carried out by the North’s East Sea fleet under the watchful eye of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
“The ultra-precision anti-ship rocket blasted off from a rocket boat. The intelligent rocket precisely sought, tracked and hit the ‘enemy’ ship after taking a safe flight,” KCNA said, without giving a location or date.
Photo: EPA
The new anti-ship rocket would be deployed across North Korea’s navy “before long,” it added.
Satisfied with the “perfect” development of the new rocket, Kim called for the production of “more tactical guided weapons of high precision and intelligence.”
The nuclear-armed communist country has pushed for the development of new ballistic missiles and rockets, despite heavy sanctions imposed by the international community.
Pyongyang’s rhetoric has become increasingly bellicose since the UN passed a resolution condemning North Korea’s human rights record and calling for its leaders to be investigated for crimes against humanity, and Washington blamed it for a cyberattack on a US film company.
South Korea and US experts believe the North could be on the way to developing missiles that could threaten the US mainland, although opinion is split on how much progress it has made.
In 2012, Pyongyang demonstrated its rocket capabilities by sending a satellite into orbit, but it has yet to conduct a test that proves it has mastered the technology required for an effective intercontinental ballistic missile.
The South Korean Ministry of Defense last month said the North had already made “significant” steps in developing technology that would allow it to equip such a missile with a bomb.
The same month, the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University released satellite images that offered fresh evidence North Korea is developing a marine-based missile system that would allow it to strike back if hit by a nuclear attack.
Commercial satellite pictures suggested a new North Korean submarine — first seen in July last year — housed one or two vertical launch tubes used to fire either ballistic or cruise missiles, the think tank said.
Development of a submarine-launched missile capability would take the North Korean nuclear threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean Peninsula.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not