North Korea’s Kim oversees delivery of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to border

North Korea marked the delivery of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to frontline military units at a ceremony where leader Kim Jong-un called for a ceaseless expansion of his military’s nuclear programme to counter perceived US threats, state media said Monday.

Concerns about Kim’s nuclear programme have grown as he has demonstrated an intent to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons along the North’s border with South Korea and authorised his military to respond with pre-emptive nuclear strikes if it perceives the leadership as under threat.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the launchers were freshly produced by the county’s munitions factories and designed to fire “tactical” ballistic missiles, a term that describes systems capable of delivering lower-yield nuclear weapons.

Kim said at Sunday’s event in Pyongyang the new launchers would give his frontline units “overwhelming” firepower over South and make the operation of tactical nuclear weapons more practical and efficient.

“We believe (the missile launchers) are intended to be used in various ways, such to attack or threaten South Korea… Deploying near the border would mean that the range is not long,” Lee Sung-joon, spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a media briefing.

State media photos showed lines of army-green launcher trucks packing a large street with seemingly thousands of spectators attending the event, which included fireworks.

North Korea has been expanding its line-up of mobile short-range weapons designed to overwhelm missile defences in South Korea, while also pursuing intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the US mainland.

Kim’s intensifying weapons tests and threats are widely seen as an attempt