North Korea Flaunts Nuke Powers, Test Fires Short-Range Ballistic Missiles With Cluster Warheads

Last Updated:April 20, 2026, 11:00 IST

Five tactical ballistic missiles, launched towards the target area around an island about 136 km away, struck the area of 12.5-13 hectares with the "very high density."

North Korea carried out multiple short-range ballistic missile launches with cluster bomb warheads, its state news agency KCNA reported on Monday, marking the fourth such test this month and seventh this year in a bid to expand its capabilities to penetrate US and South Korean defences.

The launches, which took place on Sunday under the supervision of country’s leader Kim Jong Un, aimed to “verify the characteristics and power of cluster bomb warhead and fragmentation mine warhead applied to the tactical ballistic missile", KCNA said.

The agency also shared photos of Kim and his teenage daughter, both wearing black leather jackets, watching from a coastal observation point as a projectile soared over the water, trailing gray smoke.

As per the KCNA, five upgraded surface-to-surface Hwasong-11 Ra ballistic missiles with cluster bomb warheads and fragmentation mine warheads were test-launched.

Five tactical ballistic missiles, launched towards the target area around an island about 136 km away, struck the area of 12.5-13 hectares with the “very high density, fully displaying their combat might."

Kim “expressed great satisfaction over the test results" and noted that the development of cluster bomb warheads “can… boost the high-density striking capability to quell a specific target area as well as the high-precision striking capability", KCNA said.

They followed other tests in recent weeks of weaponry, including ballistic missiles, anti-warship cruise missiles and cluster munitions. In the earlier launch this month, North Korea tested Hwasong-11 Ka surface-to-surface ballistic missiles with cluster bomb warheads that it said “can reduce to ashes any target covering an area of 6.5-7 hectares (16 to 17.2 acres)."

North Korea has tested cluster bomb warheads before. But observers have said that the Iran war may have prompted North Korea to display it has cluster munitions and accelerate efforts to develop better ones.

The destructiveness of cluster munitions has been highlighted in the ongoing war, with Israel accusing Iran of using such weapons to challenge the country’s stretched air defences. The warheads burst open at high altitudes, scattering dozens of smaller bomblets across a wide area that are difficult to intercept.

More than 120 countries have signed an international treaty banning the use of cluster munitions, but North Korea, Iran, Israel and the United States are not among them.

North Korea has been pushing to expand its nuclear arsenal and acquire an array of high-tech weapons since Kim’s nuclear diplomacy with US President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019. Among them are multi-warhead nuclear missiles, hypersonic weapons and submarine-launched ballistic missiles, whose possessions would sharply increase prospects for North Korea defeating US and South Korean missile defences.

(With inputs from agencies)

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