North Korea has deployed 250 ballistic missile launchers to its southern border, with leader Kim Jong Un describing the weapons as a ‘powerful treasured sword’ to defend its sovereignty, state media said Monday.
MORE ABOUT THE LAUNCHERS
The olive green mobile launchers were displayed during a special ‘transferring’ ceremony in the capital Pyongyang on Sunday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
The missile launchers were an ‘up-to-date tactical attack weapon’, Kim was quoted as saying in a speech.
It was the first time North Korea had publicised the scale of an arms transfer to its border units, Han Kwon-hee of the Korea Association of Defence Industry Studies said.
Each launcher was designed to hold four missiles, Han said, adding that Pyongyang’s supply of arms to Moscow might have ‘interfered with the North’s capacity to actually produce 1,000 missiles’.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with the North ramping up weapons testing and bombarding the South with balloons full of trash.
SOUTH KOREA REACTS
South Korea has responded by resuming propaganda broadcasts along the border, suspending a tension-reducing military deal and restarting live-fire drills near the border.
This year, Pyongyang declared South Korea its ‘principal enemy’, jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over ‘even 0.001 mm’ of territorial infringement.
