North Korea fired approximately ten ballistic missiles from the Pyongyang region toward the eastern sea on Saturday, March 14, according to South Korea’s military — a launch timed to coincide with the ongoing US-South Korean Freedom Shield exercises, a computer-simulated command post training drill that Pyongyang has long condemned as a rehearsal for invasion.
The following day, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, accompanied by his teenage daughter, personally observed a live-fire test of multiple rocket launch systems off the country’s east coast. State media reported that twelve 600mm-calibre ultraprecision rocket launchers took part in the drill, with Kim watching on as the weapons were put through their paces.
South Korea’s National Security Council condemned the launches as a provocation in violation of UN Security Council resolutions prohibiting all ballistic missile activity by the North. Seoul’s assessment was echoed by analysts, including Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, who said Kim’s remarks during the exercise pointed clearly to the ongoing joint drills as the trigger.
Kim, for his part, framed the exercise in characteristically defiant terms. He said the drill would expose enemies within the system’s 420-kilometre striking range to “uneasiness” and give them “a deep understanding of the destructive power of tactical nuclear weapons.”
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He declared there was no tactical weapon that matched the system’s performance, and warned that any enemy military infrastructure within its range would not survive a strike. He described the exercise as routine, announced it would be repeated frequently, and insisted the weapons programme exists to preserve what he called lasting peace through deterrence — not aggression.
The weapon at the centre of it all:
The system used in the drill — designated KN-25 in Western intelligence circles — occupies an unusual space in the taxonomy of modern weapons. Technically a hybrid between a multiple rocket launcher and a short-range ballistic missile, it blurs the line between artillery and guided projectile: large enough to generate its own thrust, precise enough to be steered during flight.
At 600 millimetres in diameter, eight metres in length, and three tonnes in weight, the KN-25 flies a controlled ballistic trajectory and can carry a conventional warhead of between 300 and 500 kilograms. Pyongyang confirmed in March 2023 that the system is also capable of delivering the Hwasan-31 tactical nuclear warhead. Official figures suggest an accuracy range of roughly 80 to 90 metres at distances exceeding 360 kilometres — a claim that, if accurate, makes it one of the more precise systems of its kind.
Mass production has been accelerating since 2023. In February this year, Kim presided over a ceremony formally handing 50 new five-tube launchers over to the Korean People’s Army — a signal, analysts say, that Pyongyang intends to field the system at scale.