North Korea Fires Salvo From World’s Longest Ranged Rocket Artillery System in Show of Force

The Korean People’s Army has fired several precision guided rockets from its eastern coast on September 12, with South Korean assessments indicating that the salvo included 600mm guided rockets from the KN-25 system. The rockets reportedly flew approximately 250 kilometres toward the waters east of the Korean Peninsula, demonstrating the Army’s ability to strike military bases, airfields, command centres and logistics infrastructure across much of South Korea. The firing came only one day after the United States, South Korea and Japan completed the five-day Freedom Edge 26 exercise, which included missile-defence, air-defence communications, cyber and maritime activities. North Korean has frequently responded to these kinds of exercises with weapons demonstrations.

North Korea's 600mm multiple rocket launcher provides a range comparable to that of many smaller ballistic missile types, with a relatively low cost allowing for sustained barrages. The system’s guided projectiles have sufficient range and sophisticated flight characteristics to complicate the traditional distinction between large-calibre rockets and tactical missiles. The KN-25 is considered optimal for missile saturation, as the cost of the rockets makes sustained missile defence wholly unaffordable. The ability to mount weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear and chemical warheads, poses a particularly serious threat, and could allow North Korean forces to quickly neutralise U.S. military facilities in South Korea. 

Commenting on the delivery of KN-25 systems in February, Chairman of the Korean Workers’ Party Kim Jong Un stated the design “perfectly combines the accuracy and destructive power of tactical ballistic missiles with the firing speed of multiple rocket launchers.” “It uses AI technology and a combined guidance system,” he observed, adding that it was able to launch strategic level attacks. The KN-25 is considered by a significant body of analysts to be the world’s longest ranged rocket artillery system, and has an estimated 400 kilometre range. The strengthening of the North Korean arsenal has occurred at a sensitive time, as the United States withdrew its MIM-104 Patriot and THAAD ballistic missile defence systems from South Korea earlier in the year for redeployment to the Middle East, leaving U.S. military facilities in the country unprecedentedly exposed. 

The historical memory of the Korean War, during which American bombers throughly ravaged the country and were responsible for killing many of the 20-30 percent of the population who died in the conflict, is thought to have remained a major influence on North Korean strategic thought today. The ability to target U.S. military facilities deep behind the frontlines has since been highly prized. North Korea’s artillery and rocket artillery forces have for decades been the largest in the world, with its short range ballistic missile arsenal also thought to be much larger than those of other countries, which heavily compensates for the advantages in air and sea power enjoyed by South Korea and the United States.