Yonhap News:
South Korea’s military said Sunday it is too early to judge whether North Korea’s modified intercontinental ballistic missiles could carry a nuclear warhead.
On Saturday, North Korea displayed KN-08 ICBMs with round warheads in a massive military parade marking the 70th founding anniversary of its ruling Workers’ Party. Previous displays of the missiles showed them with pointed warheads.
The KN-08 is known to have a range of some 12,000 kilometers, which make it capable of striking the U.S. mainland.
“We are conducting a technical analysis of the KN-08 North Korea unveiled yesterday,” a military official said on condition of anonymity. “It’s still hard to determine whether they can be fitted with a nuclear warhead.”
The official also expressed uncertainty about whether the KN-08 missiles displayed in Saturday’s parade were real.
Broadcasting the parade live, North Korea’s state television claimed the KN-08 missiles were fitted with miniaturized nuclear warheads.
South Korean military officials also said they are paying close attention to the North’s new display of a 300-millimeter multiple rocket launcher.
“It’s a copy of a Chinese multiple rocket launcher, which is in the last stage of development,” said another official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “We believe it has a maximum range of around 140 kilometers.”
The headquarters of South Korea’s Army, Navy and Air Force are located some 200 kilometers south of North Korea’s border city of Kaesong, putting them safely beyond the rocket launcher’s range.
However, the North could extend its range in the future as it has been conducting numerous tests to that end.
