- North Korea held a rare night parade that showed off the country’s military might.
- North Korea typically uses military parades to unveil new weapons to the rest of the world.
- This year, North Korea's military parade included new tanks, artillery systems, and an enormous new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
North Korea unveiled a raft of new weapons at a military parade held this weekend in the country’s capital of Pyongyang. Like some sinister version of an Apple product reveal, the military parade lifted the veil on a number of new weapon systems, both nuclear and conventional in nature.
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North Korea's military parade made it clear that, despite claims of success in negotiation by U.S. President Donald Trump and an exchange of what Trump called "love letters," Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has continued to build nuclear weapons capable of striking the U.S.
North Korea's military parade was a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Korean Workers Party, the country's ruling party. North Korea's state television network, KCNA, released high-definition video that news site NKNews.org later uploaded to YouTube, along with running commentary by a panel of political and military experts on the country.
North Korea's Mighty New Missile
The most important reveal North Korea made at its military parade was its new, unnamed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which startled analysts with its sheer size. The black-and-white-tipped missile, the largest of the country’s ICBMs so far, was carried on a lumbering 11x11 axle wheeled vehicle. By comparison, the older Hwasong-15 ICBM is carried on a 9x9 carrier vehicle. Analysts have tentatively dubbed the new missile Hwasong-16.
What’s new about the Hwasong-16? A larger missile could mean two things: a bigger “throw weight,” or launch carrying capacity, or a longer range. This would be useful if the country had perfected multiple independently targeted reentry vehicles (MIRVs). An MIRV-equipped missile can carry several nuclear warheads, each capable of striking a different target. While MIRVs typically have a smaller explosive yield, they can more efficiently blanket a swathe of enemy territory than a single large warhead.
MIRVs can also overwhelm ballistic missile defenses. North Korea’s existing missiles carry just one nuclear warhead. The Pentagon’s Ground Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) interceptors, based in Alaska and California, are designed to shoot down incoming North Korea warheads. Experts believe GMD has a roughly 50 percent kill rate, meaning it would require launching about four or five interceptors to guarantee shooting down a single incoming warhead.
MIRV-equipped missiles dramatically increase the difficulty of stopping a North Korean attack. Today, it would require about 32 to 40 GMDs to stop an attack by eight North Korean ICBMs, a doable proposition considering there are 44 GMD interceptors. If each missile carries four warheads, however, the U.S. would need 128 to 160 GMDs to stop an attack. Not only would that make a defense more complicated, but it would also require significantly more interceptors.
MIRV technology is fairly advanced, and it’s not clear that North Korea has mastered it yet. That said, experts believe the Hwasong-15 is already capable of striking almost all of the continental U.S., so Pyongyang didn't spend all of that money for a missile with longer legs. North Korea could be pursuing bigger missiles that will be ready once it masters MIRVs, or simply to intimidate the rest of the world.
Submarine Warfare
North Korea also debuted its new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). In an attempt to scatter its nuclear weapons to make them harder to destroy, the country has embarked upon a program to place nuclear weapons on submarines.
The Pukguksong-2 and -3 missiles have now apparently been supplemented with a new Pukguksong-4A, as the lettering on the side of this missile canister shows. We don't know anything about the new missile, other than it exists. One obvious area for improvement is improved range; the existing missiles have the ability to hit as far as Japan, and the next likely range target would be U.S. bases on the island of Guam.
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A Beastly Battle Tank and Intimidating APC
At its military parade, North Korea also unveiled a new main battle tank that looks like a strange mashup of the American M1A2 Abrams and Russia’s new T-14 Armata tank. The tank has seven road wheels, making bigger than previous North Korean tanks, and it appears to mount a 115 to 125-millimeter gun.
The turret features large, angled slabs of armor, like the Abrams, while other aspects, including the slat armor protecting the tank’s engine compartment, look copied from the Armata. Unique among modern tanks, the new North Korean tank has a missile launcher mounted on the turret that carries two anti-tank guided missiles.
North Korea also showed off a new turretless gun mounted on an 8x8 armored personnel carrier (APC). The result is a vehicle that looks similar to the U.S. Army’s M1128 Stryker Mobile Gun System, which is designed as an infantry support vehicle and meant to destroy enemy bunkers, emplacements, and engage armored vehicles.
The North Korean system is likely meant to do the same, although the barrel appears smaller—possibly in the 85- to 100-millimeter range—allowing it to take advantage of older tank ammunition, of which the country already has vast stockpiles.
Other, similar vehicles are equipped with an unarmored turret armed with five anti-tank guided missiles. These missiles are likely copies of the Russian 9M133 Kornet anti-tank missile, which reportedly disabled up to four American M1A2 Abrams tanks during the Iraq War.
Elsewhere in the Arsenal
North Korea is investing heavily in rocket artillery and short range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) capable of flying under the radar of American ballistic missile defenses. This new weapon mounts what appears to be two SRBMs on a tracked chassis, similar to Russia’s Iskander-M missile system.
The crew cabin is protected by slats that can be rotated 90 degrees, protecting the windshield from rocket motor blast at the moment of launch. This missile likely carries a single high-explosive warhead, cluster bomblets, or a chemical weapon warhead.
North Korea debuted this new rocket artillery system at the military parade. The rockets, which appear to at least 300 millimeters in diameter, are visible in launch tubes mounted on a protected carrier vehicle. Rockets like these could replace older 122-millimeter rocket artillery as the weapon of choice in bombarding South Korean and American positions.
The rockets likely have a longer range than their predecessors, giving them the ability to strike targets deeper into neighboring South Korea.
The Mystery Weapon
One unidentified weapon from North Korea's military parade is this 6x6 armored vehicle with an eight pack of guided missile launch tubes, which are significantly larger than other anti-tank missile launch tubes, suggesting a larger missile. These may be non-line of sight (NLOS) missiles similar to the Israeli Spike, also used by the South Korean military.
NLOS missiles typically have larger guidance fins and are meant to be controlled by an operator monitoring a video feed streamed from the missile itself. This allows an NLOS missile, for example, to be fired over a mountain and directed into a target behind the operator might notice in the video feed.
All of North Korea’s new weapons follow the country’s known list of priorities: nuclear missiles, rocket artillery, tank killers, and tanks. One big mystery from the parade: Why were many of the tanks, armored vehicles, and mobile missiles painted desert yellow?
For nearly two decades, the U.S. Army painted much of its military hardware colors that matched arid environments due to the wars in Syria and Iraq. North Korea, on the other hand, is a largely mountainous, forested country that lacks deserts. One possibility is a desire to drum up customers in the Middle East for arms sales. But only Kim Jong-un knows for sure.
