North Korea leader oversees ‘new’ weapon system test

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has overseen a test of a new anti-aircraft weapon system, state media said Sunday, amid mounting tensions in the region following a series of missile tests by Pyongyang.

Over the past few months, the young leader has overseen several military drills, including the test-firing of a medium-range ballistic missile last Sunday, as Washington seeks to ramp up pressure on Pyongyang to curb its nuclear ambitions.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim “watched the test of a new-type anti-aircraft guided weapon system”, which was aimed at “detecting and striking different targets flying from any direction”.

KCNA did not give the exact date and location of the drill.

Pyongyang first tested the new weapon system in April last year when some defects had been discovered, but Kim said the latest test verified that all glitches had been “perfectly overcome”, KCNA said.

The efficiency of the weapon system “to detect and track targets has remarkably improved and its hitting accuracy has also increased” compared to last year, the young leader was quoted as saying.

Expressing his satisfaction, Kim said: “(It) should be mass-produced to deploy in all over the country like forests so as to completely spoil the enemy’s wild dream to command the air, boasting of air supremacy and weapon almighty.”

Tensions are high in the region over the nuclear-armed North’s weapons ambitions and its regular test-firing of ballistic missiles.

The North has carried out two atomic tests and dozens of rocket firings since the beginning of last year in its quest to develop a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the continental United States.