North Korea continues testing its new SRBM systems

Images released by North Korea’s state-run media show that Pyongyang continues testing the short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) systems it unveiled last year, with the country launching on 29 March two SRBMs from what appeared to be the same large-calibre multiple-launch guided rocket system it had tested on 31 July and 2 August 2019.

The Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported on 30 March that the country’s Academy of Defence Science had carried out a “successful” test firing the previous day of “super-large multiple rocket launchers” to “verify once again the tactical and technological specifications of the launch system to be delivered to units of the Korean People's Army [KPA]”.

The paper also pointed out that Ri Pyong Chol, a member of the Political Bureau and vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, had “learned about relevant problems arising in delivering the weapon system to the units of the People’s Army and [therefore] set forth relevant tasks for the field of national defence science researches and munitions factories”.

Ri, who oversaw the recent test launch, was quoted as emphasising that the operational deployment of this weapon system is “a crucial work of very great significance in realising a new strategic intention of the Party Central Committee for national defence”.

Although no further details were provided about the road-mobile system or the cause for the delivery problems, images released by the media outlet showed that Pyongyang had fired two missiles from a tracked transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) fitted with six launch tubes.