North Korea. A new underwater nuclear attack drone has been tested

A new North Korean drone during an exercise flew underwater at a depth of 80 to 150 meters for more than 59 hours and was detonated on Thursday in the waters off the country’s east coast, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA reported.

Dubbed “Haeil,” or tsunami, the drone system is designed to launch strikes in enemy waters and destroy naval strike groups and major operational ports by creating a large-scale radioactive wave with an underwater explosion, KCNA said.

“This nuclear submarine attack drone can be deployed on any coast and in any port, or it can be towed by a surface ship for operations,” the North Korean news agency said.

KCNA also confirmed that North Korea launched cruise missiles on Wednesday to practice conducting tactical nuclear strike missions, confirming earlier reports by the South Korean military.

The cruise missiles were tipped with a “test warhead simulating a nuclear warhead” and flew 1,500-1,800 km, KCNA said.

It is unclear whether the Pyongyang regime has developed fully miniaturized nuclear warheads, which experts say will likely be a key goal if the North resumes nuclear testing.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha University, said Pyongyang’s latest claim to have a nuclear-capable underwater drone “should be treated with skepticism” but, he said, “is intended to show that the Kim regime has so many different means of nuclear attack that any pre-emptive or decapitation strike against it would fail catastrophically.”

North Korea conducted a record number of missile tests last year, it threatened USA and South Korea with nuclear weapons and amended its nuclear doctrine to allow the use of such weapons in a pre-emptive attack. Kim Jong Un announced an “exponential increase” in the nuclear arsenal.