North Korea says it has tested an underwater drone capable of causing a “radioactive tsunami”.
The “secret weapon” was brought into the waters off South Hamgyong province on Tuesday, the official news agency KCNA reported.
It travelled for more than 59 hours at a depth of 80 to 150 meters and exploded off its east coast.
However, analysts urged caution against North Korea’s claims of new weapons capabilities.
According to KCNA, the name “Haeil”, Korean for tsunami, is designed to attack enemy ships and ports by releasing a “large-scale” radiation wave. “This nuclear-powered submarine attack drone can be deployed to any coast and port or towed by a surface vessel to operate,” he added.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the drills and said it was a wake-up call for the US and South Korea to “recognize that the DPRK’s unlimited nuclear deterrent is being strengthened more rapidly”. AFP reported.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula are at their highest as the United States and South Korea wrap up their biggest joint military exercises in five years on Wednesday.
North Korea’s latest weapon appears to mimic the Russian Poseidon torpedo, which is said to be capable of generating radioactive and nuclear tsunamis that could destroy coastal US cities.
“It is clearly intended to show that the Kim regime has so many different means of nuclear attack that any pre-emptive or decapitation strike against it would fail disastrously,” he says.
“I tend to take North Korea seriously, but can’t rule out the possibility that this is an attempt at deception/psyop (psychological operations),” says Ankit Panda, a nuclear weapons specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
South Korea President Yoon Suk-yeol says on Friday that he will “make sure North Korea pays the price for its reckless provocations”.
“North Korea is advancing its nuclear weapons by the day, and carrying out missile provocations with an unprecedented intensity,” says Mr Yoon at a ceremony marking West Sea Defence Day, an annual holiday to commemorate the soldiers who died while defending the Northern Limit Line, a disputed maritime border between the Koreas.
