NKorea Claims Radioactive Tsunami Test 03/24 06:10

   

   SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea claimed Friday to have tested a 
nuclear-capable underwater drone designed to generate a gigantic "radioactive 
tsunami" 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 military exercises has 
accelerated in the past year in a cycle of tit-for-tat responses.

   Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said the new weapon, which 
can be deployed from the coast or towed by surface ships, is built to 
"stealthily 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 "reckless provocations" 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 "nuclear underwater attack drone" was part of a 
three-day exercise that simulated nuclear attacks on unspecified South Korean 
targets, which also included cruise missile launches Wednesday.

   KCNA said the North's latest tests were aimed at alerting the United States 
and South Korea of a brewing "nuclear crisis" as they continue with their 
"intentional, persistent and provocative war drills." It said the tests were 
supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who vowed to make his rivals 
"plunge 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 "three-axis" 
strategy against North Korean nuclear threats -- preemptively striking sources 
of attacks, intercepting incoming missiles and neutralizing the North's 
leadership and key military facilities.

   The North Korean drone is named "Haeil," a Korean word meaning tidal waves 
or tsunamis. The North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper published photos of Kim 
smiling next to a large, torpedo-shaped object at an unspecified indoor 
facility, but didn't identify it.

   Other photos published with the same article showed sea-surface tracks 
supposedly caused by the drone's 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's 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's University of North Korean Studies, 
said that it's impossible to verify North Korea's claims about the drone's 
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.

   "This un-crewed underwater vehicle will be vulnerable to anti-submarine 
warfare capabilities if it were to deploy beyond North Korea's coastal waters. 
It will also be susceptible to preemptive strikes when in port," said Panda.

   "Indeed, the U.S. and South Korea would have incentives in a crisis to 
preempt any such systems before they could deploy."

   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't yet mastered the technology to place 
nuclear arms on its most advanced weapons, but acknowledged the country was 
making "significant progress."

   On Wednesday, North Korea also test-fired cruise missiles in launches that 
were detected and publicized by South Korea's military. It also staged another 
nuclear attack simulation with a short-range ballistic missile on Sunday and 
flight-tested an intercontinental ballistic missile last week that may be able 
to reach the continental United States.

   KCNA said Wednesday's 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' 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 "reckless military provocations" of 
his rivals, indicating North Korea will further ramp up its military displays.

   He "expressed his will to make the U.S. imperialists and the (South) Korean 
puppet regime plunge into despair" with powerful demonstrations of his military 
nuclear program to make his rivals understand "they are bound to lose more than 
they get" 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's 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.