SEOUL — North Korea said on Thursday its testing spree this week involved various new weapons systems, including ballistic missiles armed with cluster-bomb warheads, as it pushes to expand nuclear-capable forces aimed at rival South Korea.
The report by Pyongyang’s state media came a day after the South Korean military said it detected the North firing multiple missiles from an eastern coastal area in its second round of launches in two days.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the tests lasted three days starting on Monday, adding that it also included demonstrations of anti-aircraft weapons, purported electromagnetic weapons systems and carbon-fiber bombs.
NOTHING NEW A television screen shows a file image of North Korea’s missile launch during a news broadcast at the Seoul Railway Station in South Korea’s capital Seoul on April 8, 2026. AP PHOTO
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles launched on Wednesday flew 240 to 700 kilometers (150 to 434 miles) before falling into the sea, and that it also detected at least one projectile launched on Tuesday from an area near the North Korean capital Pyongyang.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said none of the weapons fired on Wednesday entered waters within its exclusive economic zone, while the United States military said this week’s North Korean launches posed no immediate threat to the US or its allies.
The KCNA said the latest tests included demonstrations of cluster-munition warhead systems mounted on the nuclear-capable Hwasong-11 ballistic missiles, which resemble Russia’s Iskander missiles in their design for low-altitude, maneuverable flight to evade missile defense systems.
The report also said the launches confirmed that the short-range missile, when armed with such warheads, “can reduce to ashes any target covering an area of 6.5 to 7 hectares (16 to 17.2 acres) with the highest-density power.”
Jang Do-young, a spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a briefing that the military was analyzing the launches while sharing information with US and Japanese counterparts, but declined to provide specific assessments about the North’s claims of progress in its military capabilities.
The launches underscored continuing tensions between the Koreas, blunting South Korean hopes for warmer relations.
In a statement on Tuesday night, Jang Kum Chol, a first vice minister at Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry, said the South would always remain the North’s “most hostile enemy state” and mocked Seoul’s liberal government for seeking to revive restore long-stalled dialogue, calling its officials “world-startling fools.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has suspended virtually all diplomacy with Seoul and Washington since the collapse of his nuclear talks with US President Donald Trump in 2019, and has since accelerated the development of nuclear-capable missiles that threaten US allies in Asia, as well as the US mainland.
Kim has also pursued closer ties with Russia, China and other countries embroiled in confrontations with the US as he looks to break out of isolation and strengthen his regional footing.