North Korea tests new nuclear-capable underwater drone

SEOUL – North Korea has tested a new nuclear-capable underwater attack drone, state media reported on Friday, as leader Kim Jong Un warned that joint military drills by South Korea and the US should stop.

During the test on Thursday, the new drone cruised underwater at a depth of 80m to 150m for more than 59 hours and detonated a non-nuclear payload in waters off the country’s east coast, North Korean state news agency KCNA said.

Analysts say Pyongyang is showing off its increasingly diverse nuclear threats to Washington and Seoul, though they are sceptical whether the underwater vehicle is ready for deployment.

North Korea intends to signal “to the United States and South Korea that in a war, the potential vectors of nuclear weapons delivery that the allies would have to worry about and target would be vast”, said Mr Ankit Panda, senior fellow at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“There would be silos, railcars, submarines and road mobile missile launchers. And now, they are adding this underwater torpedo to the mix,” he said.

On Monday, the isolated country flew a short-range missile from a buried silo, a departure from its usual basing methods.

Dubbed “Haeil”, or tsunami, the drone system is intended to make sneak attacks in enemy waters and destroy naval strike groups and major ports by creating a super-scale radioactive wave through an underwater explosion, KCNA said.

“This nuclear underwater attack drone can be deployed at any coast and port, or towed by a surface ship for operation,” the news agency said, adding that Mr Kim oversaw the test.

It is unclear whether North Korea has fully developed miniaturised nuclear warheads needed to fit on its smaller weapons.

Analysts say perfecting smaller warheads would most likely be a key goal if the North resumes nuclear testing.

A photo released by state media showed Mr Kim smiling next to a large torpedo-shaped object, but it was not identified as the new drone.

Other photos showed tracks of the object’s underwater trajectory, and blasts visible on the sea surface. 

Mr Panda said the weapon’s operational concept was similar to Russia’s Poseidon nuclear torpedoes, a new category of retaliatory weapon meant to create destructive, radioactive blasts in coastal areas.

On Friday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said he would make sure North Korea paid for its “reckless provocations”, during a speech to commemorate service members who died in clashes with North Korea in western waters, including a 2010 sinking of a navy ship that Seoul said was struck by a North Korean torpedo.

Pyongyang also said it had fired cruise missiles on Wednesday to practise carrying out tactical nuclear attacks, confirming earlier reports from the South Korean military.  

The cruise missiles were tipped with a “test warhead simulating a nuclear warhead”, and flew 1,500km to 1,800km, according to KCNA.

The latest tests took place as South Korean and American troops launched their largest amphibious landing drills in years on Monday.

North Korea said military exercises by the US and South Korea require its forces to “gird themselves for an all-out war and bolster its nuclear force both in quality and quantity on a priority basis”.

Pyongyang has long bristled at exercises conducted by South Korean and US forces, saying they are preparations for an invasion of the North.

South Korea and the US say the exercises are purely defensive and have criticised the North’s tests as destabilising and in breach of United Nations sanctions.

The allies concluded 11 days of their regular springtime exercises, called “Freedom Shield 23”, on Thursday, but have other field training exercises continuing. 

Mr Kim expressed “his will to make the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet regime plunge into despair for their choice”, KCNA said, adding that he warned the enemies that they should stop reckless anti-North Korea war drills.

The director of the US Defence Intelligence Agency said on Wednesday Mr Kim does not appear poised to carry out a nuclear test during US-South Korea military exercises, but the US is staying vigilant. REUTERS