North Korea's newspaper the Rodong
Sinmun has announced the country has a new anti-tank missile capable
of destroying enemy tanks, rendering them "no more than a boiled
pumpkin". The missile, an updated version of an older Soviet design, will
be used for guerrilla warfare and may even be used in terrorist attacks.
The announcement, which
included photos of Kim Jong-un observing the destruction of a target tank,
praised the missile system as "as accurate as a sniper's rifle" and
having the "longest firing range in the world." The missile
was described as a weapon for "guerrilla warfare," lightweight
and capable of defending the country from enemy tanks, armoured vehicles, and
even ships.
The unnamed missile is
apparently the "Bulsae-2", or Phoenix-2. Bulsae-2 appears to be a
copy of the Soviet 9K111 Fagot (Russian for "Bassoon") anti-tank
guided missile. First designed in the early 1960s, the 9K111 was meant to
be a portable system to destroy NATO tanks on the battlefield. The missile
has a range of 1.2 miles and can penetrate 19 to 23 inches of steel armour.