North Korea Conducts 'Mixed' Long-Range Artillery and Missile Drill, Possibly Applying Lessons from Russia-Ukraine War

Two low-flying cruise missiles and four multiple rocket artillery shells fired along a parabolic trajectory strike a rocky island almost simultaneously.

North Korea belatedly revealed two days later that it conducted a joint strike drill involving long-range artillery and missile units off the East Sea (Donghae) the day before yesterday.

North Korea announced that new combat systems were deployed, including various attack drones, strategic cruise missiles, large-caliber thermobaric multiple rocket launchers, and tactical ballistic missiles.

It reported that Pak Jong-chon, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, and the director of the Artillery Bureau of the General Staff Department of the Korean People's Army guided the drill on-site, suggesting that general secretary Kim Jong-un did not attend.

North Korea emphasized that the drill ensured synchronization and simultaneity in strikes, hitting targets with a 100 percent accuracy rate, and stated that the purpose of the drill was to "enhance the expertise to collapse enemy military forces at any given moment upon receiving an order."

Experts evaluated the event as a process in which North Korea tested comprehensive new weapon systems using the so-called "mixed firing" tactic, which has frequently appeared in recent conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the Middle East conflict.

[Shin Jong-woo / Secretary-General, Korea Defense and Security Forum: Cruise missiles and multiple rocket launchers have different speeds, but it is somewhat unusual that they calculated the timing so that they would arrive in the same time frame. It seems they conducted a drill to overload air defense systems and destroy targets.]

Looking at the photos released by North Korea, multiple drones were also deployed to overload air defense systems and destroy targets. Analysts suggest that this mirrors recent battlefield tactics where drones are sent ahead as decoys to deplete enemy interceptor missiles.

However, North Korea did not report the drill in domestic media intended for its citizens, such as the Rodong Sinmun, but instead published it only through the Korean Central News Agency, an outlet aimed at foreign audiences, releasing just nine photos.

This is interpreted as an effort to hint at a response to South Korea-U.S. and South Korea-U.S.-Japan joint drills while simultaneously adjusting the intensity of the response through Kim Jong-un's absence and a controlled volume of reporting.

Reported by Kim Ayeong | Video by So Ji-hye | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.