Images from North Korea show that the country may have developed one of its largest nuclear weapons systems to date, raising further concerns about the country’s intentions amid a precarious security situation on the Korean Peninsula.
On Sunday, state news agency KNCA reported on a visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to an unnamed military production facility. Alongside the announcement, entitled “Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Inspects Defence Industrial Enterprise,” KNCA published a photo of the visit.
This showed Kim, accompanied by several unnamed Pyongyang officials, examining a vast transporter erector launcher (TEL), a vehicle designed to carry and fire surface-to-air or surface-to-surface missiles.
Kim Jong Un inspecting a 12-axle transporter erector launcher vehicle. According to NKNews, the vehicle resembles Pyongyang’s Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile TEL, and is one of the largest launchers ever pictured from North Korea.
According to analysis by NKNews, the 12-axle vehicle resembles Pyongyang’s Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile TEL, and is one of the largest launchers ever pictured from North Korea.
While the TEL in the image does not appear to be mounted with a missile launch tube, NKNews said that the new vehicle could be used to fire the country’s Hwasong-18, a ballistic missile first unveiled by the country in early 2023.
Analysts are unsure of the missile’s range, but KNCA reported that Kim “expressed his satisfaction” that military production was on track to reach the goals laid out during the country’s eight party congress.
During this congress, held in January 2021, Kim stressed the need for his military to develop weaponry with a range of 15,000 kilometers (9,321 miles) before the end of 2025, an achievement NKNews highlighted would put the entirety of the U.S. and much of the world within North Korea’s crosshairs.
The newly released image comes during a period of heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and continuous warnings from Pyongyang over nuclear escalation in response to U.S. actions.
Over the past few weeks, the U.S. has engaged in several joint military exercises and dialogues with South Korea, aimed at shoring up their capacity to deal with the threats posed by North Korea.
In the latest iteration of the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, which concluded on August 29, the two countries practiced field maneuvers, live-fire exercises and computer simulations involving missile attacks by North Korea.
This was followed by Exercise Ssang Yong 24, in which forces rehearsed a “joint forcible entry operation,” simulating a neutralization operation in a hypothetical conflict scenario, according to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
North Korea has historically viewed such drills as rehearsals for an invasion, calling the latest “a prelude to nuclear war,” and warning that the U.S. would “pay a dear price” for provoking the isolated state.
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