The North Korean regime conducted a new military test to improve the effectiveness of its “tactical nuclear weapons”

North Korea tested a new weapons system under the supervision of leader Kim Jong-un to improve the effectiveness of its “tactical nuclear weapons,” state agency KCNA said on Sunday.

The new “guided tactical weapon” is of “great importance for improving the firepower of front-line long-range artillery units and improving the efficiency of the operation of tactical nuclear weapons,” said KCNA.

The agency indicated that the test had been successful, but did not specify when it took place.

Kim gave the military research team “important instructions to increase defensive capabilities and nuclear combat forces,” KCNA said.

Photos published by the Rodong Sinmun newspaper show a smiling Kim - surrounded by uniformed officials - applauding as he observes what, according to the newspaper, was the firing test of the gun.

On Friday, North Korea celebrated the 110th anniversary of the birth of the national founder and grandfather of the current leader, Kim Il Sung, with a huge march, fireworks and synchronized dances, but without the military parade that analysts were waiting for.

Observers, as well as leaders from South Korea and the United States, also feared a possible nuclear test for this anniversary, which comes amid an intensification of weapons tests by the atomically capable regime.

Three weeks ago, Pyongyang tested the most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile in its history, on the first time that the regime launched this type of shell at full range since 2017. That test ended the self-imposed moratorium on long-range and nuclear weapons.

Nuclear and far-reaching tests have been on pause since Kim met with then-US President Donald Trump in a doomed attempt at diplomacy, which failed in 2019.

Officials and analysts say North Korea could carry out its seventh nuclear test in the coming weeks. Satellite images have shown signs of new activity in a tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, which North Korea says was demolished in 2018 before the first Trump/Kim summit.

North Korea has tested nuclear weapons six times since 2006 and heralded the success of its last and most powerful in 2017: a hydrogen bomb with an estimated power of 250 kilotons.

With a new nuclear test, experts say Pyongyang will seek to miniaturize nuclear warheads to mount them on its ICBMs.

South Korean officials have said that Pyongyang could still organize a military parade or conduct an arms test around April 25, the anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Army. That anniversary coincides with the joint military maneuvers between Seoul and Washington, which will begin on Monday. South Korea and the United States regularly organize military exercises, but Pyongyang has long protested that they are considered a trial of war.

With information from AFP

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