North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, a stunted little gargoyle with bad hair from a line of stunted little gargoyles with bad hair, has been feeling his oats lately. He's been working on building up North Korea's military while keeping the entire population of that isolated Stalinist state in the world's largest communist labor camp.
Now, in the latest move, we see reports that the North Korean navy has tested a new high-speed torpedo, which they reportedly expect to deploy in 2027.
North Korea test-fired a new high-speed torpedo and plans to equip its navy with the weapon in early 2027, state-run media reported Tuesday.
The test took place Monday in the sea between Korea and Japan and "verified the combat effectiveness" of the torpedo system, the official Korean Central News Agency said. The agency released no photos and gave no detailed specifications.
The Academy of Defense Sciences, the Missile Administration and the Torpedo Weapon Research Bureau conducted the test as part of their work to advance weapons technology, KCNA said.
Torpedoes aren't the only thing Kim Jong Un's military minions are playing with.
North Korea also launched two types of strategic cruise missiles from a submarine on Oct. 14. South Korea's military assessed that one type was fired from a vertical launch tube and the other from a torpedo tube.
The North commissioned two 5,000-ton destroyers this year, the Choe Hyon in June and the Kang Kon in September.
At the Choe Hyon's commissioning ceremony, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the navy "is rising into a full-fledged service equipped with strategic means as the program of equipping the Navy with nuclear weapons is following its planned course unerringly."
In a separate November 2 test, North Korea reportedly demonstrated a cruise missile equipped with a "dispersal warhead," meaning that it scatters large numbers of submunitions over a wide area, in the same manner as the American Cold War-era "Rockeye" cluster bombs. These warheads are reported to have the capacity to pretty much erase personnel and equipment over an area of 12 to 15 acres; these would seem to be tailor-made for eliminating forward airfields and logistical sites.
The American military news outlet, Stars and Stripes, reports that South Korea claims to be "monitoring the situation," while the United States Pacific Command has not yet released a statement on this latest North Korean test.
While North Korea is a threat, it remains a threat mostly, but not completely, limited to the west Pacific; there are some indications they have missiles able to reach the American west coast, along with nuclear warheads to put on them, even a lunatic like Kim Jong Un has to know that this would be courting extinction for North Korea to make any such strike. But some key American allies in the west Pacific should be concerned. Most notably South Korea, the Philippines and Japan. We should remember as well that North Korea remains to some degree a client state of communist China, which may well support them with logistics if they ever launch a major operation.
The world is growing a more dangerous place by the day. And the United States' incoming 120th Congress is probably the weakest in terms of support for the military that we have had in several generations.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are once again respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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