Nuclear-armed North Korea showcased its missile production muscle during a nighttime parade, state media reported on Thursday, displaying more intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) than ever before and hinting at a new solid-fuel weapon.
The country has forged ahead with its ballistic missile programme, test-launching dozens of advanced missiles last year despite United Nations Security Council resolutions and sanctions.
"This time, Kim Jong Un let North Korea’s expanding tactical and long-range missile forces speak for themselves," said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. "The message Pyongyang wants to send internationally, demonstrating its capabilities to deter and coerce, will likely come in the form of solid-fuel missile tests and detonation of a miniaturised nuclear device."
Imagery released by state media outlet KCNA of the Wednesday night parade showed as many as 11 Hwasong-17s, North Korea's largest ICBM, which are suspected to be able to strike nearly anywhere in the world with a nuclear warhead.
Eleven missiles could be enough to overwhelm current U.S. missile defences, Ankit Panda of the United States–based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said on Twitter.
"This is cumulatively more ICBM launchers than we've ever seen before at a North Korean parade," he said in a tweet.
The Hwasong-17 was first tested last year. Alongside them at the parade were what some analysts said could be a prototype or mockup of a new solid-fuel ICBM in canister launchers.
Reuters
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