- North Korea confirmed its second ballistic missile test this month, firing projectiles equipped with cluster bomb warheads to enhance its ability to penetrate US and South Korean defences.
- Leader Kim Jong Un, accompanied by his daughter Kim Ju Ae, observed the launch of five upgraded Hwasong-11 Ra surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, which struck an island target.
- The test follows an earlier launch of Hwasong-11 Ka missiles, also with cluster bomb warheads, and comes as the destructiveness of such munitions is highlighted in the Iran war.
- North Korea, along with Iran, Israel, and the United States, has not signed the international treaty banning cluster munitions, which burst open to scatter smaller bomblets over a wide area.
- Pyongyang's ongoing weapons development, including multi-warhead nuclear missiles and hypersonic weapons, aims to defeat US and South Korean missile defences, with recent tests potentially increasing its leverage for future talks with the US.
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