North Korea has recently strengthened its military by giving 250 Hwasong-11D tactical ballistic missile launchers to its army.
This handover took place during a ceremony in Pyongyang, attended by the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un.
The news was reported by South Korean media, citing North Korea’s Central News Agency.
The Hwasong-11D, also known as Hwasongpho-11Ra, is a short-range ballistic missile system. These 250 mobile launchers were sent to military units stationed on the front line with South Korea.
To put this in perspective, Russia has 200 launchers for various ballistic missiles, including 150 Iskander systems and 50 Tochka-U systems, according to the 2023 Military Balance report. Each Hwasong-11D launcher vehicle carries four missiles, meaning that these 250 launchers could fire up to 1,000 missiles at once.
The Hwasong-11D is believed to be a smaller version of the KN-23 missile, which is similar to the Russian 9M723 Iskander-M missile.
While the exact details of the Hwasong-11D aren’t clear, it’s estimated to have a range of about 180 kilometers, though this could be longer if the warhead size is reduced.
The KN-23 missile, which the Hwasong-11D is based on, has already been used by Russia in combat in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine.
But these missiles have had issues with accuracy, leading to a number of misses and failures during flight.
