North Korea launched new air defence missile weapons earlier this week that the government claimed had “superior combat capability,” according to a release from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The government said in a press release that these two new missiles are suitable for “destroying various air targets,” like attack drones and cruise missiles.
The report from the KCNA didn’t explain the missiles in any detail and only said that their “operation and reaction mode is based on unique and special technology”. They did not say where the test had been conducted either.
Here is all we know about North Korea’s missile arsenal.
Intercontinental missiles believed to be in undeclared missile bases
An August report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) says that North Korea has built a series of undeclared missile operating bases that are not part of any demitilarisation process.
The Sinpung-dong missile base, 27 kilometres away from the Chinese border, likely contains between six and nine Hwasong-15 or Hawsong-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles with their corresponding launchers or transporters, CSIS said.
The Hwasong-15, or known as the KN-22, is a missile up to 22.5 metres long that can reach targets up to 13,000 kilometres away, according to CSIS.
North Korea’s likely been developing this missile since its initial launch in 2017, when media reports say it flew for 53 minutes and 4,475 kilometres before landing off the coast of Japan.
During the first test, it was reported that the North Korean leadership said the missile had a “super-large heavy warhead which is capable of striking the whole mainland of the US”.
Hwasong-18s are thought to be solid-fuel missiles, which the US Arms Control Association says have many advantages, such as a shorter launch time, easier handling and storage, and the ability to launch smaller missiles.
North Korea is also in possession of Hwasong-19 missiles, which it tested and launched for the first time last November in response to what North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un called “provocations” from South Korea and the United States.
Nuclear and short-range missiles
Other bases that CSIS highlighted in its report include the Kal-Gol base, roughly 52 kilometres north of the demilitarised zone with South Korea, which is reported to have a 500-kilometre range Hwasong-6.
The short-range missile, in service since 1991, is an estimated 10.9 metres long and carries a single payload up to 770 kilograms. It’s a missile that many other countries use, including Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Vietnam, and Yemen, the CSIS said.
The report explained that other bases could also be equipped with the Hwasong-9, which CSIS describes as the extended range version of the Hwasong-6.
The 13.5 metre-long missile has a range of 1,000 kilometres and has a launch weight of 6,400 kilograms with a single warhead that can be “conventional high-explosive, nuclear, chemical or biological”.
The various missiles would be complemented by nuclear weapons, according to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), despite UN resolutions that impose international sanctions on the country for building them.
In 2024, the FAS estimated that North Korea has enough material to produce up to 90 nuclear warheads but that it has likely assembled fewer than that, closer to 50.