On March 9, at 7:36 AM local time, North Korea reportedly fired at least three projectiles covering around 200 km and reaching a peak altitude of 50 km before landing in the Sea of Japan (East Sea). Subsequently released imagery confirmed that a test had been conducted of a weapon previously referred to by North Korean state media as a “super-large caliber” MRLS (Multiple Rocket Launch System), known externally as the KN-25 (an unconfirmed US designation).

This marks at least the sixth round of testing of the KN-25, with multiple projectiles launched on each occasion, bringing it closer to deployable status. (Two additional tests may have been conducted on July 31 and August 2, 2019, but the different terminology and the tracked, as opposed to wheeled, launch vehicles that were used raise the possibility of a different projectile.)

Location

This latest test comes just one week after North Korea fired two projectiles from a KN-25 near Wonsan. Monday’s test occurred slightly farther up the eastern coast, in the Sondok area in South Hamgyong Province. While the precise launch location(s) has yet to be geolocated, the images published by North Korean state media appear consistent with the beachline area just east of the Sondok Air Base. The runway at this air base was used for an earlier KN-25 test—perhaps the first of this system—on August 24, 2019.

In one of the images published, it shows a missile impacting land amid a rising plume of smoke, suggesting a recent prior impact(s) had also occurred. While it is unclear from the images the location of this island, there is a small rocky island around 200 km from the Sondok area, consistent with the flight trajectory, that has been used for target practice for a number of new ballistic missile systems over the past year, including the KN-25 test on September 10, 2019.

North Korea’s Large Caliber MRLS Tests 2019-2020[1]