Kim Oversees Weapons Tests Reaching Seoul
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- Kim Jong Un oversaw June 25 tests of an upgraded 240mm-calibre 24-tubular multiple rocket launcher whose firing range was extended to 90km — enough to reach parts of the Seoul metropolitan area from positions near the inter-Korean border, per KCNA.
- The tests also evaluated a special-mission tactical ballistic missile warhead "aimed at inflicting fatal damage on major targets including airfields, ports and power facilities," plus 155mm self-propelled gun-howitzer shells with an extended firing range of 65km.
- KCNA reported the rocket launcher includes a new self-steered precise guidance system, with Kim expressing satisfaction over "greater automation, longer range and higher precision" in firepower along the southern border.
- Kim said North Korea was focused on "deadly and destructive offensive posture," not only defence, reiterating that no enemy should dare confront the country that remains technically at war with the South.
- Analyst Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP the specifics amounted to "a show of force against the South Korean capital region," noting Pyongyang's "strategic intent" of provoking public anxiety as a form of war deterrence.
- The weapons display followed South Korean President Lee Jae Myung's meeting with Donald Trump at the G-7 in France, where Trump told Lee it was time to "pay attention to the North Korea issue," and came after Kim earlier in June vowed to equip the navy with nuclear weapons.
Why it matters: The 90km rocket launcher range puts roughly half of the Seoul metropolitan area — home to over 20 million people — inside North Korea's artillery envelope without nuclear weapons, meaning the threat is conventional and immediate, not theoretical. The tests, timed days after the Trump-Lee G-7 meeting, signal Pyongyang is responding to renewed allied attention by demonstrating it can credibly target the South's command-and-control infrastructure (airfields, ports, power).
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