North Korea claimed Friday it had tested an underwater nuclear attack droneable to unleash a “radioactive tsunami”, as it blamed recent US-South Koreaexercises for a deteriorating regional security situation.
Pyongyang carried out drills in response this week, the official KoreanCentral News Agency said, including testing of the new underwater nucleardelivery system.
“This nuclear underwater attack drone can be deployed at any coast and portor towed by a surface ship for operation,” the report said.
The weapon’s mission is to “stealthily infiltrate into operational watersand make a super-scale radioactive tsunami … to destroy naval strikergroups and major operational ports of the enemy,” it added.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally oversaw the tests, KCNAreported, and images released by Pyongyang’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper showeda smiling Kim and what appeared to be an underwater explosion.
The agency also said Pyongyang had fired strategic cruise missiles “tippedwith a test warhead simulating a nuclear warhead” on Wednesday.
Read Top Stories
But analysts questioned North Korea’s claims.
The idea that Pyongyang has “a nuclear-capable underwater drone should bemet with skepticism,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Universityin Seoul.
“Pyongyang’s claims about a new weapons system are not the same as acredible demonstration of capability,” he added.
