Pyongyang announced an October 31 trial of a warhead that disperses smaller munitions over a wide area. It aims to give military units a choice of warhead types by the end of the year. South Korea separately reported detecting the launch; North Korea’s performance claims remain independently unverified.
North Korea announced that it had tried a cluster-munition warhead for tactical ballistic missiles on October 31. Such a warhead disperses smaller munitions over a broad area. The announcement described a military programme to make different warhead types available to units by the end of the year. Claims about their destructive power come from North Korean authorities and have not been independently verified.[1], [2]
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said a missile was fired from Jeongju, in North Korea’s North Pyongan Province, towards the West Sea. South Korean and US forces said they had tracked related movements beforehand and maintained readiness. The South Korean military disclosed the detection the next day after examining flight distance, altitude and other parameters. It did not publish the missile’s flight distance.[1]
The North Korean Missile Administration, the body overseeing the test, called the warhead Standard Type 2. Its director described four warhead categories, including special-purpose and standard types, and said units should be able to choose according to their missions and targets. Pyongyang had tested a cluster warhead on a Hwasong-11Ra missile in April. That earlier test preceded the newly announced trial.[1]
