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North Korea has signaled the future strategic deployment of a new weapon system by assigning the codename Pyoltsi-1-2 during the test launch of a new strategic cruise missile with an extra-large warhead. Given the assignment of a codename just before tactical deployment, this missile is believed to have already completed development and is in the early stages of operation.
According to the North Korean state-run Korean Central News Agency, on the 21st, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s Missile Bureau conducted a power test of the Hwasal-1 Ra-3 type strategic cruise missile’s extra-large warhead and a test launch of the new anti-aircraft missile Pyoltsi-1-2 in the West Sea on the afternoon of the 19th.
The agency declared the launch successful, saying, “This test is a normal part of the missile bureau and related defense science research institutes’ efforts to enhance the tactical and technical performance and operation of the new weapon system.”
Some have speculated that the strategic cruise missile launched this time, which North Korea has named Hwasal-1 Ra-3, is either close to deployment or in the early stages of operation, considering its mission and target, as it is a 930mi-class Hwasal-1 missile.
In fact, North Korea has previously announced three types of long-range strategic cruise missiles in the Arrow series: the 930mi-class Hwasal-1, the 1,200mi-class Hwasal-2, and the 1,200mi-class Hwasal-3, and conducted test launches of these missiles in the Hwasal series from 2021 to 2023.
On February 2, North Korea also announced that it had conducted a power test of a cruise missile’s extra-large warhead and a test launch of a new anti-aircraft missile in the West Sea, which is believed to be the same one. It is interpreted that they assigned a name because there were some performance improvements over the past two months.
As North Korea has previously used new types of Pongae 5 and 6 via improving Russia’s S-300 and S-400 missiles, it is also presumed that there have been technical alterations in Pyoltsi through several launches. Amid increasingly close ties between North Korea and Russia following a North Korea-Russia meeting last September, there is a possibility that Russia has transferred the technology needed to develop the Pyoltsi.
Hong Min, a Senior Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, argued, “There has been skepticism about whether North Korea has secured radar capabilities comparable to Russia’s S-400 or S-300,” and “The Pyoltsi is seen as a model that has technologically evolved from this.”
He added, “Given the recent close North Korea-Russia ties, technical support for North Korea’s anti-aircraft missiles is the most likely aspect of military cooperation,” and “The reason North Korea has publicly conducted experiments during the South Korea-U.S. joint air exercises is seen as a signal that it can intercept South Korea-U.S. fighter jets.”
Yang Moo Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, analyzed, “They resumed the missile launch test, which had been postponed due to the Chinese delegation and the South Korean general election,” and “If linked to the timing, it is a countermeasure to the United States Ambassador to the United Nations’ tour of South Korea and Japan for cooperation on sanctions against North Korea.”
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