Yonhap reported that on January 21, the South Korean Presidential Office made an assessment of North Korea's latest underwater nuclear weapons system test.
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| Image of a North Korean Haeil-5-23 test released by KCNA in 2023. (Source: KCNA) |
"If tested, the device is believed to be a torpedo, with a very small possibility that it is a nuclear weapons system," the South Korean presidential office said in a press release.
The office said, "There is no way to develop a small reactor that can be installed in a torpedo with a diameter of less than 1 meter."
The statement also said that the South Korean military, in coordination with the US, has been monitoring signs that North Korea is developing underwater weapons systems, including nuclear attack drones and submarine-launched ballistic missiles, using intelligence and surveillance assets.
On January 19, North Korea announced that it had conducted a major test of an underwater nuclear attack drone, named Haeil-5-23, in the East Sea of the country in response to the latest joint naval exercises between South Korea, the US and Japan.
The test was met with opposition from the US, South Korea and its allies, in the context that just a few days earlier, North Korea also announced the successful test launch of a hypersonic missile using solid fuel.
On January 22, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that at the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Uganda, Pyongyang defended measures to strengthen its military capabilities.
North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister and head of the NAM delegation Kim Son-kyong said Pyongyang is strengthening its defense capabilities to cope with "dangerous military moves" by Washington and its allies, and this is a legitimate act of the country's sovereign rights.
According to KCNA , at the NAM conference, Mr. Kim Son-kyong stated: "The phenomenon of the independent rights, life and development of a sovereign state being seriously threatened is clearly focused on the Korean peninsula."
Affirming that North Korea's struggle to protect its sovereign rights is fully in line with NAM's ideology, the diplomat also stated that Pyongyang opposes any form of infringement on a country's sovereign rights and interference in its internal affairs.
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