S. Korea conducts precision strike drills targeting Kim Jong Un’s office

S. Korea conducts precision strike drills targeting Kim Jong Un’s office. September. 05, 2017 08:50. by Hyo-Ju Son hjson@donga.com. The South Korean military authority started a show of force that mobilizes weapons including missiles capable of making ultrahigh precision attacks on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s office within an error margin of 1 meter in response to Pyongyang’s sixth nuclear test. 


The military authority said on Monday that it fired one shot each of the Army’s Hyunmu-2A ballistic missile and the Air Force’s long-range surface-to-air missile Slam-ER concurrently in waters in the East Sea around 6 a.m. on the day.

“The joint live fire drill was conducted in a way that hit the mark after setting a coordinate by taking into account the distance to the nuclear test site in Punggye-ri in North Korea,” said the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. “We have displayed the capability in precision strike at the origin of the North’s provocations and commanding forces by accurately hitting the mark.”

“We conducted the live fire drill as soon as the day broke since we judged it was important to start sending warnings to the North the soonest moment possible," a military source said.

The Hyunmu-2A with a warhead of up to two tons can destroy underground bunkers situated at a depth of 10 to 20 meters where North Korea’s warfare command center will go into hiding in the event of armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula. The missile has a maximum range of 300 kilometers, and when fired at around the demilitarized zone, it can strike the nuclear test site in Punggye-ri.

The Slam-ER, two of which can be installed on each F-15K, the South Korean Airforce’s flagship fighter jet, can strike the target within an error margin of 1 meter from a distance of up to 270 kilometers. Equipped with the GPS, inertial navigation system (INS), infrared imaging radiometer (IIR) and others, the missile is capable of seamlessly penetrating the North’s air defense system to accurately strike the windows of Kim Jong Un’s office to demonstrate its massive destructive power.  


The South Korean military authority will also conduct for the first time a live fire drill with 177 Taurus air-to-surface missiles within this month, as it is set to continue a show of force. The Taurus is a state-of-the-art weapons system that is produced in a stealth missile format to dodge the North’s radar network and can stealthily reach the target to make a surprise attack. The Taurus has a maximum range is 500 kilometers, nearly twice that of the Slam-ER, which is expected to attack at the target precisely within a radius of two to three meters across the entire North Korean territory even without the South Korean military’s entry into the North Korean territory.