{"id":8669,"date":"2026-05-08T06:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T06:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/8669\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T06:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T06:53:12","slug":"north-korea-to-deploy-new-artillery-along-border-with-south-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/8669\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea to deploy new artillery along border with South"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Korea plans to deploy a new type of artillery along its southern border, state media said Friday, potentially putting Seoul within striking range as Pyongyang deepens its hostility towards South Korea.<\/p>\n

Despite peace overtures from the South Korean government, the North has repeatedly cast Seoul as its main adversary, and recently removed longstanding references to Korean unification from its constitution.<\/p>\n

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a munitions factory this week to review production of a “new-type 155-millimetre self-propelled gun-howitzer”, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.<\/p>\n

The weapon has a range exceeding 60 kilometres (37 miles) and will be deployed this year to a long-range artillery unit along the border with South Korea, according to KCNA.<\/p>\n

Central Seoul lies around 50 to 60 kilometres from the frontier, and much of Gyeonggi province — South Korea’s most populous, home to key industrial hubs — would also fall within range.<\/p>\n

The howitzer will “provide significant changes and advantages to our military’s ground operations”, KCNA reported Kim as saying.<\/p>\n

North and South Korea remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Pyongyang has blown up roads and railways linking it with the South, and purportedly built barriers near the border.<\/p>\n

In another sign of its hardening stance, North Korea deleted all references to uniting the divided peninsula from its constitution, an AFP review of the latest version this week showed.<\/p>\n

The document no longer contains a clause saying Pyongyang seeks “the reunification of the homeland”, and includes a new one defining North Korea’s territory as extending northwards to China and Russia, and southwards to the “Republic of Korea”, the South’s official name.<\/p>\n

South Korea’s presidential office said on Thursday that it would continue to pursue peace efforts with the North.<\/p>\n

In a separate report, KCNA said Kim visited the 5,000-ton destroyer Choe Hyon on Thursday to oversee handling tests ahead of its formal deployment.<\/p>\n

Images carried by state media showed his daughter, Ju Ae, accompanying him on his visit to the Yellow Sea, where he boarded the warship and examined its capabilities.<\/p>\n

Another photo showed a grinning Kim sitting with Ju Ae at a table in the ship’s mess hall, surrounded by uniformed marines eating instant rice meals.<\/p>\n

North Korea has recently staged strategic cruise missile launches from the Choe Hyon, which analysts believe could be equipped to carry nuclear warheads.<\/p>\n

Kim voiced satisfaction with the vessel’s progress and instructed officials to hand it over to the navy by mid-June as planned, KCNA said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AFP<\/p>\n

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