New North Korean rocket launch system and risk of arms race poses new puzzle for China

Pyongyang’s announcement that it has developed and tested the new system ‘could prove tricky for China’ according to one analyst

North Korea has carried out a series of missile tests in recent months, adding to tensions in the region

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An image released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency of the test a 240 mm-caliber controllable multiple rocket launcher. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:00pm, 12 Feb 2024

North Korea’s development of a new rocket launcher control system could speed up the region’s arms race and prove “tricky” for China, an analyst has said.

Pyongyang said on Monday it had successfully developed controllable shells and a new ballistic control system for a multiple rocket launcher.

According to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, North Korean state media said the development of the 240mm-calibre multiple rocket launcher shells and its ballistic control system would make a “qualitative change in our army’s multiple rocket launcher force”.

The North Korean Academy of Defence Science also conducted a test firing of the new controllable shells on Sunday, the report added.

Ryu Yong-wook , a China and Korea affairs specialist at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said the development would further advance Pyongyang’s missile and delivery capabilities and strengthen its offensive capacity.

“It will increase the military tensions in the Korean peninsula at a time when there is a deadlock in inter-Korean relations and will likely intensify an arms race in a region that is already fraught with multiple flashpoints,” he said.