North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen a ceremony marking the transfer of 250 tactical ballistic missile launchers to the country's border with South Korea, according to state media.
At an "historic event" in the North Korean capital Pyongyang on Sunday, Kim inspected the new attack weapons that it was claimed he had "personally designed," and which he said were part of the rapid and ongoing development of North Korea's self-defense capabilities, state news agency KCNA reported.
The launchers will be used to attack or threaten the South, Col. Lee Sung-joon, a spokesperson for Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in remarks reported by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
Placing the missile launchers close to the border area on the divided peninsula indicates they are designed for short-range launches, the South Korean military added.
Already tense relations between the two nations on the divided Korean Peninsula have deteriorated as North Korea draws closer to Russia while pushing forward with missile testing and nuclear weapons development programs. In late December, Pyongyang put its military production on a war footing as the "grave political and military situation" on and around the peninsula "reached its limit," Kim said at the time.
Earlier this year, North Korea shifted away from an official policy of reconciliation with South Korea, declaring Seoul to be a sworn enemy. South Korea and Japan have expressed grave concerns about North Korea's military activity, calling Pyongyang's actions a severe threat to their national security and turning to the U.S. for support—something that has angered North Korea.
Kim said on Sunday Pyongyang was building up "tremendous strength" in its armed forces because of "the crucial change in the military security environment facing our country, and the U.S. and its followers' ever-escalating moves toward military confrontation.
Joseph Dempsey, a research associate with the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank, said in a post to social media that images appeared to show 250 Hwasong-11D launchers. Pyongyang has said the short-range ballistic missile can be armed with a tactical nuclear warhead, Dempsey told CNN, adding it is not clear if North Korea has produced the 1,000 missiles this number of launchers can fire.
"It's highly improbable at least that North Korea has anywhere near that number of tactical nuclear warheads," Dempsey said.
North Korea has said it is upping weapons production and has test-fired a host of new weapons capable of carrying nuclear weapons, from an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to an "underwater nuclear weapons system" supposedly capable of unleashing a nuclear tsunami on North Korea's adversaries.
In September 2023, North Korea said it had debuted its first "tactical nuclear attack submarine" able to carry and launch nuclear weapons, although some Western analysts doubt the sub's true capabilities.
Pyongyang has also launched its first military spy satellite, which it says has captured footage of sensitive political and military sites.
In early July, South Korea resumed live-fire drills close to the border for the first time in years after North Korea launched hundreds of waste-filled balloons southward.
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