Kim Hails DPRK’s Advancing Military Technology After New Weapon Test

By Staff, Agencies

DPRK leader Kim Jong Un supervised a test of a “new-type weapon” system, praising it as evidence of the country’s advancing military capabilities, state media reported Tuesday.

The announcement came two days after South Korea and Japan said Pyongyang had fired two short-range ballistic missiles into waters off its eastern coast, describing the launches as “threats to regional peace and security.”

According to the Korean Central News Agency [KCNA], the country’s missile bureau “successfully tested a new type of weapon” on Sunday in Kim’s presence.

DPRK gave no details about the system, but Kim called the test “a striking demonstration of ultra-modern defence technology,” warning that such advances would leave adversaries facing “an incurable headache and a very cruel and unavoidable blow.”

The test followed a series of recent firepower drills. Eight days earlier, DPRK launched multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, in what Pyongyang described as a joint firepower exercise involving long-range artillery and missiles. State media said the weapons hit their targets with “100 percent accuracy.”

Connecting the latest test to broader military preparedness, Kim said acquiring such technology was of “weighty significance” for the country’s readiness for war and the future development of its armed forces.

South Korea condemned the launches as “violations” of UN Security Council resolutions and urged Pyongyang to halt its ballistic missile activities. Japan likewise lodged a “stern protest,” calling the launches a threat to regional peace and security.

On the nuclear front, DPRK last week rejected an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution calling for an end to its nuclear activities, declaring that its status as a nuclear weapons state was “irreversibly and permanently fixed” under its laws.

A DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the resolution had no effect on its nuclear status, while Kim Yo Jong described that status as “absolute” and called those seeking denuclearization “idiots.”

Meanwhile, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has urged Washington to pursue a freeze on DPRK’s nuclear program rather than immediately seeking its elimination, with sanctions relief offered in return, according to The New York Times.

Since taking office in June 2025, Lee has moved away from his predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol’s harder-line approach and offered talks with nuclear-armed Pyongyang without preconditions.

Lee said a trade-off involving sanctions relief and a halt to the development of additional nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology could have “significant value,” arguing that pursuing denuclearization under current circumstances “guarantees that nothing will be accomplished.”

He had previously said freezing DPRK’s nuclear capabilities at current levels would itself constitute “a gain.”