Global Issues
North Korea test-fires new weapon in latest provocation against West
The move underscores Pyongyang's growing defiance of amid rising friction with Seoul and Washington.
![A man watches a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a train station in Seoul on March 10. North Korea fired 'multiple unidentified ballistic missiles' on March 10, South Korea's military said, the same day Seoul and Washington began a major annual joint military drill known as Freedom Shield. [Yeon-Je/AFP]](/gc7/images/2025/03/21/49700-korea_missile-370_237.webp)
By AFP and Global Watch |
SEOUL -- North Korea said on Friday (March 21) that it test-fired a new weapon system to boost the country's combat readiness, marking Pyongyang's latest effort to ratchet up tensions in the region.
The weapon test follows a series of recent provocations by North Korea, including ballistic and cruise missile launches, as it rails against joint US-South Korea military exercises.
With analysts warning that North Korea is likely developing arms for export to Russia, the timing of the latest test suggests a coordinated effort to challenge the West and expand its influence through military cooperation with Moscow.
Traditional allies Russia and North Korea have drawn closer since Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with Seoul accusing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of sending thousands of troops and container loads of weapons to help Moscow fight Kyiv.
Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang has officially confirmed the troop deployment, but the two countries last year signed a sweeping military deal, including a mutual defense clause, when Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to the nuclear-armed North.
US-South Korea joint exercise
The weapon display comes as top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu has arrived in North Korea for a visit, Russian news agency TASS reported, the latest in a recent series of high-level exchanges between North Korea and Russia.
Shoigu is scheduled for discussions with Kim and other North Korean officials, both TASS and RIA Novosti reported.
Kim oversaw the test-fire of the country's latest antiaircraft missile system, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, without specifying when the test happened.
Kim said it showed North Korea's army would be "equipped with another major defense weapon system with laudable combat performance," KCNA said.
The announcement came a day after South Korea wrapped up a major annual joint military exercise with the United States, known as Freedom Shield, which Pyongyang separately denounced as "a rehearsal of war of aggression."
The North -- which attacked its neighbor in 1950, triggering the Korean War -- has long been infuriated by any military exercises between the United States and the South.
Seoul said last week the North had fired "multiple unidentified ballistic missiles" after it began the joint drills, which involve US soldiers stationed in South Korea.
Pyongyang carried out a test-launch of strategic cruise missiles in the Yellow Sea in late February, which it said showed off "counterattack capabilities."
The most recent Freedom Shield exercise featured a collaborative drill focused on countering weapons of mass destruction, specifically targeting nuclear, chemical, biological and radioactive threats.
The latest launch appears to be "the testing of weapons for export to Russia to be used in Ukraine," Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told AFP.
Pyongyang is using the US-South Korea joint exercises as an excuse to develop and export such weapons to Moscow, he added.