SEOUL, South Korea (AP) 鈥 North Korea claimed Friday to have tested a nuclear-capable underwater drone designed to generate a gigantic 鈥渞adioactive tsunami鈥 that would destroy naval strike groups and ports. Analysts were skeptical that the device presents a major new threat, but the test underlines the North's commitment to raising nuclear threats.
The test this week came as the United States reportedly planned to deploy aircraft carrier strike groups and other advanced assets to waters off the Korean Peninsula. Military tensions are at a high point as the pace of both North Korean weapons tests and U.S.-South Korea joint has accelerated in the past year in a cycle of tit-for-tat responses.
Pyongyang鈥檚 official Korean Central News Agency said the new weapon, which can be deployed from the coast or towed by surface ships, is built to 鈥渟tealthily infiltrate into operational waters and make a super-scale radioactive tsunami through an underwater explosion" to destroy enemy naval strike groups and ports.
The report came hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged to make North Korea pay for its 鈥渞eckless provocations鈥 as he attended a remembrance service honoring 55 South Korean troops killed during major clashes with the North near their western sea border in past years.
The testing of the purported 鈥渘uclear underwater attack drone鈥 was part of a three-day exercise that simulated nuclear attacks on unspecified South Korean targets, .
KCNA said the North鈥檚 latest tests were aimed at alerting the United States and South Korea of a brewing 鈥渘uclear crisis鈥 as they continue with their 鈥渋ntentional, persistent and provocative war drills.鈥 It said the tests were supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who vowed to make his rivals 鈥減lunge into despair."
The U.S. and South Korea completed an 11-day exercise Thursday that included their biggest field training in years, and are preparing another round of joint naval drills that will reportedly involve a U.S. aircraft carrier.
Hours after the North Korean report, South Korea's air force released details of a five-day joint aerial drill with the United States that began Monday and concluded Friday above waters off South Korea's western coast, which included live-fire demonstrations of air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons.
The air force said the exercise, which involved various South Korean fighter jets and at least one U.S. A-10 attack plane, was aimed at verifying precision strike capabilities and reaffirming the credibility of Seoul's 鈥渢hree-axis鈥 strategy against North Korean nuclear threats 鈥 preemptively striking sources of attacks, intercepting incoming missiles and neutralizing the North's leadership and key military facilities.
The North Korean drone is named 鈥淗aeil,鈥 a Korean word meaning tidal waves or tsunamis. The North鈥檚 Rodong Sinmun newspaper published photos of Kim smiling next to a large, torpedo-shaped object at an unspecified indoor facility, but didn鈥檛 identify it.
Other photos published with the same article showed sea-surface tracks supposedly caused by the drone鈥檚 underwater trajectory and a pillar of water exploding up into the air, possibly caused by what state media described as an underwater detonation of a mock nuclear weapon carried by the drone.
KCNA said the drone was deployed Tuesday off the North鈥檚 eastern coast, traveled underwater for nearly 60 hours, and detonated a test warhead at a target standing for an enemy port. It said the test verified the operational reliability of the drone, which it said the North has been developing since 2012 and tested more 50 times in the past two years, although the weapon was never mentioned before in state media until Friday.
Kim Dong-yub, a professor at Seoul鈥檚 University of North Korean Studies, said that it鈥檚 impossible to verify North Korea鈥檚 claims about the drone鈥檚 capabilities or that it had tested the system dozens of times. But, he said, the North is intending to communicate that the weapon has enough range to reach all South Korean ports.
Ankit Panda, a senior analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, questioned the wisdom of North Korea devoting resources to the drone system as a means of delivery versus its ballistic missiles when it has limited amounts of nuclear materials suitable for weapons.
鈥淭his un-crewed underwater vehicle will be vulnerable to anti-submarine warfare capabilities if it were to deploy beyond North Korea鈥檚 coastal waters. It will also be susceptible to preemptive strikes when in port,鈥 said Panda.
鈥淚ndeed, the U.S. and South Korea would have incentives in a crisis to preempt any such systems before they could deploy.鈥
North Korea is believed to have dozens of nuclear warheads and may be capable of fitting them on older weapons systems, such as Scuds or Rodong missiles. However, there are different assessments on how far it has advanced in engineering those warheads to fit on the new weapons it has developed at a rapid pace, which might require further technological upgrades and nuclear tests.
Speaking to lawmakers on Thursday, South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-Sup said the North probably hasn鈥檛 yet mastered the technology to place nuclear arms on its most advanced weapons, but acknowledged the country was making 鈥渟ignificant progress.鈥
On Wednesday, North Korea also test-fired cruise missiles in launches that were detected and publicized by South Korea鈥檚 military. It also staged another nuclear attack simulation with a and that may be able to reach the continental United States.
KCNA said Wednesday鈥檚 tests were of four cruise missiles and two different types. The missiles flew for more than two hours in patterns over the sea while demonstrating an ability to strike targets 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) and 1,800 kilometers (1,118 miles) away. It said the missiles鈥 mock nuclear warheads were detonated 600 meters (1,968 feet) above their targets, which supposedly verified the reliability of their nuclear explosion control devices and warhead detonators.
KCNA said Kim Jong Un was satisfied with the three-day drills and directed unspecified additional tasks to counter the 鈥渞eckless military provocations鈥 of his rivals, indicating North Korea will further ramp up its military displays.
He 鈥渆xpressed his will to make the U.S. imperialists and the (South) Korean puppet regime plunge into despair鈥 with powerful demonstrations of his military nuclear program to make his rivals understand 鈥渢hey are bound to lose more than they get鈥 with the expansion of their joint drills.
Kim issued similar language Sunday after a test-firing of a short-range ballistic missile from what was possibly a silo dug into the ground. The North鈥檚 media said a mock nuclear warhead placed on the missile detonated 800 meters (2,624 feet) above water, an altitude that would maximize damage.
The North has fired over 20 ballistic and cruise missiles across 10 launch events this year as it tries to diversify its delivery systems and display the ability to conduct nuclear strikes on both South Korea and the U.S. mainland.
North Korea already is coming off a record year in testing activity, with more than 70 missiles fired in 2022, as Kim accelerated a campaign aimed at negotiating badly needed sanctions relief from a position of strength and forcing the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power.
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