Qualitative change expected in its defence capabilities

SEOUL, Feb 12 (AFP): North Korea said on Monday it had developed a new control system for a multiple rocket launcher that would lead to a "qualitative change" in its defence capabilities.

Pyongyang's Academy of Defense Science successfully carried out a "ballistic control test firing of 240-mm caliber multiple rocket launcher shells" on Saturday to develop a "controllable shell and ballistic control system" for the launcher, state news agency KCNA reported.

The new rocket launcher would now be "reevaluated" and its battlefield role "increased", KCNA said.

Nuclear-armed North Korea this year declared South Korea as its "principal enemy", closing agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatening war over "even 0.001 millimetres" of territorial infringement.

Leader Kim Jong Un repeated on Friday that Pyongyang would not hesitate to "put an end" to South Korea if attacked, calling Seoul the North's "most dangerous and first enemy state and invariable arch-enemy".

In January, North Korea fired an artillery barrage near two South Korean border islands, prompting a live-fire drill by the South and evacuation orders for residents.