In recent tests, North Korea has been improving the firepower of its missiles that can target South Korea, making them ready to deploy on a battlefield, experts said.
“North Korea has been enhancing its firepower, war-fighting capabilities over the past two years, flight-testing a number of new systems,” including the KN-25 missile and variants such as the KN-23 and KN-24, said Michael Elleman, director of the Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Policy Program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Both systems "are capable of threatening targets in South Korea and are likely more accurate and lethal than the systems previously seen in North Korea,” he said.
Compared with artillery positioned across the North Korean side of the demilitarized zone, Elleman said, the KN-25 missiles give Pyongyang the ability “to attack the South relentlessly in the opening hours or days of conflict.”
North Korea’s launches on March 2 and March 9 included KN-25 missiles that the regime began testing on August 24. was Pyongyang’s sixth KN-25 test.
North Korea tested similar missiles on July 31 and August 2, but they were smaller than the KN-25, Elleman said.
The KN-25 is a long-range artillery rocket with a guidance system to control its flight path. Because it has a guidance system like a ballistic missile, the U.S. classifies the KN-25 as a missile.
According to Elleman, the U.S. calls it “a close-range ballistic missile,” a type of short-range ballistic missile. North Korea described both launches earlier this month as “long-range artillery” drills.
“The distinction between rockets and ballistic missiles is, really, kind of semantic at this point,” said Ian Williams, deputy director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “We’re seeing more and more systems that don’t fit either category perfectly.”
Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at California’s Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said, “The old distinction used to be between missiles, which were guided, and artillery rockets, which were not.
“Most artillery rockets are now guided because electronics are so cheap,” he said.
Adding guidance technology to a long-range artillery rocket is relatively new to North Korea, Elleman said.
“The U.S. has been doing it for about 20 years,” he said. “But it’s just been in the last five to 10 years that we’ve seen countries like North Korea and Iran adding guidance to what normally would be a large-diameter or long-range artillery rocket.”
Although this technology may be new for Pyongyang, it is not a new strategic weapon. The country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, that “the world will witness” it soon.
“[The North Koreans] haven’t publicly shown us something like that yet,” Elleman said. “This is not a type of strategic missile.”
Experts say enhancing flight trajectories and firepower has been North Korea’s goal for its KN-25 tests since August.
A long-range artillery rocket like the KN-25 can normally fly up to 400 km at a relatively high altitude, Williams said.
However, he said, North Korea has been testing the missiles at shorter distances and lower altitudes in the March tests, indicating that the regime has a specific goal.
“The biggest difference for me is the altitude that it flew and the range,” Williams said. “They’re firing at a much lower altitude, and that’s giving them a lower range. They’re not flying as far. So, they’re experimenting with different trajectory types so that they can attack multiple kinds of targets” in South Korea.
“The things they’re actually maybe wanting to target with it are [U.S.] military bases in South Korea, airfields," he said. "Most of those are within 200 km of North Korea. So they’re working out, making sure, and exercising in a way that they would use it in a war.”
The missiles that North Korea were launched from its eastern coastal city of Wonsan, and they flew 240 km. The ones from the eastern region of Sondok flew up to 200 km, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
By comparison, the KN-25 missiles North Korea traveled between 330 km and 380 km.
If classic , which travel between 300 and 1,000 km, can reach the same distance as guided long-range artillery rockets, why is North Korea working on improving the KN-25?
Firing more missiles at one time could be the answer.
A key distinction between a guided artillery rocket like the KN-25 and a short-range ballistic missile is the number of projectiles that can be mounted on a launch truck.