As tensions on the Korean Peninsula remain high, South Korea has publicly revealed a three-layer attack strategy, along with plans to acquire additional types of ballistic missiles, which it could put into action in the event of any conflict with North Korea. The disclosure appears to be the latest in a string of surprisingly detailed military announcements that South Korean authorities have been making to deter an increasingly belligerent Kim Jong-un, but could just as easily provoke the pariah state. South Korea’s Army included the missile strike concept in a report to the Defense Committee of the country’s National Assembly as part of an annual audit. The strategy, coupled with the acquisition of new ballistic missiles, was part of a larger five-pillar modernization plan that also included improving the capabilities of the country's conventional ground forces, adding more drones and unmanned ground vehicles to the force, crafting a new battle management network, and the already announced formation of a specialized unit for so-called “decapitation strikes” to surgically neutralize key North Korean figures and assets during a crisis, which we at The War Zone have already examined in detail.

The review specifically said that the main goal of the three tier missile attack plan, which sounds very similar to South Korea’s existing “Kill Chain” concept, was to present North Korea with the threat of rapidly losing much of its ballistic missile, nuclear weapons, and long-range artillery capabilities, which the South Korean Army said would be “unbearable costs” for Kim Jong-un’s regime. “We would use those three-types of missiles as the first salvo of the missile strike and concentrate them during the initial phase of war to destroy North Korea’s long-range artillery units and missiles located in ballistic missile operating area,” the report explained, according to The Korea Herald. The three missiles in question are South Korea’s existing indigenously developed Hyunmoo-2 short-range ballistic missiles, along with two new surface-to-surface designs, the Korean Tactical Surface-to-Surface Missile (KTSSM) I and II, which are still in development. South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group first publicly displayed the KTSSM-I, which it dubbed “The Artillery Killer,” at the annual International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition, or ADEX, in Seoul earlier in October 2017.

The KTSSM-I has a range of approximately 75 miles and looks very much like the U.S. military’s Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), though it’s unclear what, if any, connection there actually is between the two systems. Unlike the tracked or wheeled launchers Americans use to fire ATACMS, Hanwha has developed a fixed, four-round launcher that South Korea would likely emplace at multiple, hardened locations within striking distance of the North. "KTSSM-I will strike the enemy's tunnels with the 170-mm self-propelled howitzers and 240-mm multiple-rocket launch systems," the South Korean Army noted in its report to the National Assembly, according to South Korea's Yonhap News. Hanwha released a graphic at ADEX 2017 showing the missile following a complex flight path straight into a tunnel opening.