North Korea News Podcast by NK News - A modular missile system, warship testing and signs Xi will visit North Korea

Episode Date: June 2, 2026

On this week’s episode, NK News Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko discusses a busy week of developments in North Korea. He examines Pyongyang’s latest missile test of a new modular launcher and tactical cruise missile system, as well as what these weapons could mean for military planning near the inter-Korean border. He also talks about […]

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Early-Byr tickets are now open with discount for NK Pro and NK News members. Space is limited to just 80 paying guests, so claim your seat. claim your seat soon. Hello listeners, welcome back to the NK News podcast. My name is Alana Hill, and today I'm joined by my esteemed colleague and NK News Senior Analytic correspondent, Mr. Collins-Zerko. We're in the studio in Seoul on Monday, June 1st. Hi, Colin.

Hello. Colin, you've had a pretty busy stretch following the latest developments in North Korea, from a new modular missile launcher and tactical cruise missile system to signs of naval testing off NAMPO, possible preparations for a foreign, leader visit to Pyongyang and a new solar farm in Hague. Lots to unpack today. But the common thread is North Korea showing or maybe hinting at new capabilities and priorities, military modernization, diplomatic staging and attempts to address chronic energy problems. Let's start with the missile test. South Korea first said on Tuesday last week that North Korea had launched various projectiles

from the northwest into the LOC, including what appeared to be a close-range ballistic missile. then state media followed up with photos, claims about a new modular launch vehicle and a tactical cruise missile system. Colin, when the JCS first announced this launch, what stood out to you? I love missile tests don't occur from the West Coast. And lately when missile tests have occurred from the West Coast, they've usually been not reported by JCS, but later reported by North Korea only and then JCS. And they've been cruise missiles usually, which JCS doesn't, the South Korean Joint Chiefs, of staff, which they don't usually report in real time to the public because they don't consider

them like an urgent threat or something like that. So I thought this could be from the warship, but I was thinking, well, North Korea initially said that the new destroyer that they've been developing would have ballistic missiles, but lately they've just been launching missiles and anti-aircraft missiles and they've switched up the launch systems on it. So I was thinking, well, maybe this could be the new modular launcher because every time they have a missile test in the last, well, ever since October, when they first showed us this new modular like high mars-like system, I'm thinking, well, it could show up.

And then it finally did. So the next day, North Green Media showed us that it was, in fact, this modular high-Mars-like missile launch vehicle. So, yeah, it's from the West Coast has usually been rocket launches, like 240mm rocket launches. And to be fair, we have the messages in our news chat to prove that you did call that it was a modular launcher. I did. Well, KCNA later confirmed that that's what it was and that it can fire different systems.

Why is that significant? Well, it's good for, I guess, you could say maybe like fooling the enemy. This launcher can hold two pods. One can be, well, there's three things that can fit in these two pods. It could be an array of 122 millimeter multiple launch rocket system rockets, or 240 millimeter, which they've been talking about developing more precise target capabilities and more advanced warheads. Or the third of this Huasang 11 RA or D in the alphabet, close range missiles. almost a short-range ballistic missile.

So this is a missile that North Korea has said can fit a nuclear warhead. So if you're the U.S. and you're targeting in a wartime scenario, and North Korea has these, this is actually quite mobile, versatile, it seems. We don't have a whole lot of proof of it's driving around or anything. They only showed us still photos. But the U.S. has to consider, oh, North Korea has nuclear weapons. Are they going to launch these at Seoul? And you've got these vehicles driving around and the U.S. is trying to track them and target them.

And they also have to think this could be holding a nuclear missile or it might not be holding a nuclear missile. And so the U.S. has to make calculations based on targeting priority and all this kind of stuff. So it's going to cause headaches for sure. And otherwise it's just a more capable, more mobile delivery system for potentially nuclear missiles or, you know, barrage rockets. This is what they're intending with this weapon. How does this compare with the Hwasang 11D launches that North Korea has shown before? They were showing us. I think they had four pods in them.

Like 410 North Korea showed us. They had 250 of these built out. They were demonstrating their mass production capabilities. This was even a couple of years ago. They said they would be deployed to the South Korean border. you know, the north-south border. I suspected the reason they were building so many of these was maybe to export them to Russia or other customers,

but I don't think we've seen that specific launcher confirmed there in the war against Ukraine. I could be wrong on that. But that launcher is a dedicated launcher for that missile. So if the U.S. or South Korea intelligence is sure about how to track that vehicle based on its size and its characteristics, then they know that that's a, well,

it can be conventional or nuclear missile. So it's just different. I mean, I'm not an expert on how the military targets, but I would assume it's just they would think differently about this modular launcher than they would about the dedicated launch. And Colin, the same event also featured a new tactical cruise missile system.

What do we know about it? And I suppose, what do we not know? That was the second weapon used in the same test. The test photos released by KCNA showed us the two launchers side by side. This has, I think, 22 tubes, so it can hold 22 of these new tactical cruise missiles. This was the first time North Korea was showing us these. They blurred half of the missile in the photos. So we cannot see details.

They're claiming this is highly accurate. I talked to some experts. They were saying that this could be some kind of glide bomb, like rocket boosted, but then glide bomb with some kind of sensors on it to help. They were saying that this thing needs to be highly accurate. Otherwise, it has not much impact because it's a small, very small missile. And so it would have a small, you know, explosive impact ability, whatever the right word is for that.

But so that it's the claims inaccuracy need to be correct in order for that thing to be an effective. weapon. Kim Jong-un said these systems would be deployed near the border. What does that tell us about their intended role? I think, again, we have to consider that these might be for export to Russia or others. But, yeah, I mean, the modular launcher is mixed systems that we already know. We already know these, this cruise missile would fill the gap in imprecise rocket barrages. and a more expensive ballistic missile.

So the experts that I talked to for the story told me that, again, you need to have really high-quality intelligence capabilities to even have a target so precise in the first place. And then this weapon, if it's to the border, would be a target maybe individuals or political enemies or generals or specific military installations if they had the intelligence to pin that down. And what do we know about North Korea's intelligence capabilities? Can we say whether they do have those capabilities in terms of accuracy or we don't have?

Just doubt from the experts I talked to that they would have that. But, yeah, I mean, they only have one reconnaissance satellite to call their own. And that has obviously that's limited eyes if it's only coming around once. every revolution, obviously. And we'd even know how capable that one is. So that's just one piece of all kinds of intelligence you need. So it's a far, far behind. Right. Right. Colin, last thing I want to ask you about this missile test is media didn't publish this in Rodung-Shun men. So what might it mean when North Korea promotes something externally but not domestically? Yeah, it's a tricky one because overall in the last few months

or just even beyond that, Kim Jong-un is not shy about talking about his priority on military spending, developing. There's kind of an assumption that he needs to take into account a couple of different things. You know, he wants to

please the important military industry but also not he doesn't want the people to think that that's all he cares about that. He's also focused on domestic issues, the economy, living conditions. It's probably just either him or someone in the propaganda department thinking that at that very moment on that certain day, just want a focus to be elsewhere. I don't know if it can

really say anything larger about Kim doesn't want to talk about the military to the people, because he's going to come out in a couple days probably and do something highly focused on the military. So it's tough to say for sure. And as you've been following state media, have you ever seen in the past where this might show up on a later date? They might report on this missile test later in the rodentsian moon. Has that ever happened? I don't think that they do that in terms of, they would do that if it was their first state media report in general. Like there could be a missile test and then you know, five or even 10 days later they might have a big wrap up of all kinds of missile tests that were happening. I think that happened a couple times of a few years ago.

but I don't think that they would report it in KCNA and then later report it to the domestic audience. The only way that it might show up later would be like in a documentary about Kim Jong-in's, they might then show it, and then people probably wouldn't even be able to make the connection of when that was. We've never seen that most all before.

Well, let's now turn to the No. 51 Chohan Destroyer. Satellite imagery appear to show North Korea's largest modern warship moving in Nampo Bay, possibly as part of testing ahead of deployment. Colin, tell us exactly what, this satellite imagery showed. Yeah, this number 51 is the designation. The Chehan, a thousand-ton destroyer, is the biggest modern warship that North Korea is developing. They launched it officially from the Nampo shipyard last year in April.

And ever since then, they've just been keeping it at the shipyard and changing its weaponry on its deck. and almost every day in satellite imagery for the last year plus, it's sitting at the dock at the NAMPO shipyard. And it's gone out for missile tests a few times. And one time, just earlier in May, state media claimed it went on 120-mile sailing test outside of the NAMPO Bay is protected by the West Sea barrage with the lock gate. And that's the only way to get into the Nampo Bay.

And this was the first time that the ship was claimed to have left that and sailed on the open seas. And by the way, Kim Jong-un said at that time that it would finally officially deploy in mid-June. So that's just a couple, you know, it could be any day now. So the satellite imagery shows that this ship was not at that dock on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. So we last reported on it on Friday or Thursday. And I have the story to include the Friday bit, but I also just checked this morning and the satellite imagery shows it was not at the dock on Sunday as well. So we can be pretty sure. We can measure it and see imagery.

We can compare it, overlay it, and see some signatures just the way that, even though slow res, you know, it like the ship that's been docked at the shipyard. And yesterday's image Sunday, it was right off of the shipyard. So now we've seen it in three days just in the Nampo Bay. So I'm guessing that it's conducting missile tests. These would be things that South Korea wouldn't report on because they would be surface-to-air missiles and cruise missiles. We saw a target island off of Nampo have some scarring, so probably a missile test, being involved in a missile test. That could have been the missile test actually from last week. It's unconfirmed.

So this, and North Korean state media hasn't reported on this activity from the warship. So I'm guessing this means that it's in its final stage. of prepping for deployment. They're doing, they're sailing every day, testing this and that. And that probably when it does officially deploy, maybe Kim will go check it out one final time. But it looks like it's becoming routine now. So anytime this ship moves in the future, we're not going to like report it every time probably is it's going to be. But this thing is going soon and where it's going is important. Yeah. And Colin, you said that it was Thursday, Friday, Sunday. We did.

didn't see it. Saturday there was no image, sorry. Okay, so yeah, that's what I wanted to ask. So Saturday could have also been out. It could have been out on Saturday. Okay, interesting. And as you just mentioned, Kim, Dengler said this is previously supposed to, the ship is supposed to deploy mid-June. Do we know what needs to happen before then? Is that like an impossible question to ask based on just satellite imagery or do you have any idea? He already said last year that it should deploy early 2026. So I think it already faced some delays. Okay. But it's probably no big deal.

It's the natural part of getting it ready. Like when Kim was on that sailing test in early May, I was in the mess hall eating with the sailors. And they were all eating instant rice bowls, which means I read this comment somewhere. I don't remember where I read it, but which means the kitchen wasn't ready yet. You know, so things like that probably weren't prioritized along the, the way like getting making sure the all the living quarter

everything is like set up all the final details like maybe they're just trying to get everything in order at the end and obviously it's a big deal to consider this ship being equipped with all these missiles and weapons and deployed that means it's you know

ready for any situation and then if it's sailing around south korea then that's it's going to be a new thing, basically, a new situation that the South Korea and the U.S. military has to consider. Do we know when they first started building this ship? Yeah, they built this quite quickly. They started building it. So it launched in April 2025. I think they started building it like early 2024. Wow. Something like that. That does seem fast. Reportedly assigned to the East Sea fleet, what would be involved in moving it from the West Coast to the East Coast? Yeah, so this is, I mean,

I mean, I'm sure we talked about it on this podcast before, but it's kind of a mystery because at the launch ceremony last April, they just nonchalantly said, like, we're on the West Coast holding this ceremony and come up, please, commander of the East Sea Fleet. This is being conveyed to you, and it will be conveyed to the East Sea Fleet. And so it's like, okay, well, now it has to go around from the West Coast to the East Coast. It makes sense because that's a much more important strategic location, the East Coast, and the West Coast. for their ambitions as far as being able to sail anywhere in the Pacific Ocean. But the most straightforward way that they would sail around South Korea in international waters, probably with the escort of a Corvette, I don't know. It's hard to say. And this would put South Korea in the U.S. on high alert.

it would be a big event, in terms of the attention it gets. We don't know if North Korea is going to announce it or if they're just going to start sailing. We don't know if South Korea or the U.S. is going to announce it or if they're going to just watch it and not make it. You know, the current lead administration might not want to make a big deal out of it. I don't know. But the U.S. probably would announce it. Or it could go farther out. It could not try to go.

I mean, I don't think it wouldn't go between Jeju and South Korea and mainland. It would probably go outside. And, you know, it might even go further and go around Japan or who knows what it's going to do. So we don't know if they even want to avoid a controversy or not. Do they want to create a backlash or not? Do they want to play it safe? But something, as you tell, we're watching out for in the coming days and weeks as soon as then. Yeah.

And I mean, I would say we're all, we're just all of the speculations based off that one first report. Maybe they changed their mind. It won't go to the East Sea because they're also building one on the East Coast. but they were building that at the same. So I think that this message should be taken later. I've seen, I saw an analysis somewhere saying, oh, no, they probably actually made a mistake because it's actually not going to the East Sea

because they're building one in the EC as well. And I was like, well, I think they would make such a big mistake in the article. So I think we have to assume it will go. Maybe then the East Sea will come back to the West Coast. Yeah, I'll switch. Well, that one was also conveyed to the East Sea Fleet, but that one's like not developing, according to. schedule, I think. Okay, okay. In other preparation stories, signs that Pyongyang is preparing

for a foreign leader welcome ceremony made, of course, reports that Xi Jinping could be visiting. We've just heard reports about this, of course, nothing set in stone, although I saw some baseline this morning in our news channel that apparently the last time Xi Jinping visited Pyongyang in 2019, Chinese state media announced about three days before. So I know some people were on or maybe this weekend something might happen, but of course, nothing did happen. What exactly did you spot in Kim Il-sung Square? Yeah, so the reports first started coming out. There were two reports in the same day, Time magazine in the U.S.

and Yonab News, South Korea, on May 20th reported that this thing, that she is planning to visit, Xi Jinping is planning to visit North Korea. I think the stated evidence was quite compelling, even though we don't have access to this evidence that she's security teams were going to North Korea, stuff like that. But no date just could be in the next few weeks, basically, is what they said. And so I just have to go off of a very limited ability of baselining satellite imagery. So at Kim Jong-Sung Square, Kim Jong-un has made a sort of tradition recently of welcoming ceremony at Kim Il-sung Square in central Pyongyang. And they would construct a stone marble-looking gazebo at the front of the square and decorate the square.

And then that's where Kim would show up with all of his officials and a crowd waving pom-poms and flags and stuff. And then the visiting leader, this happened in March with the Belarusian leader Lukashenko. And with Putin, when he came in June 2021, four. And both times it looked the same almost. Just Putin's ceremony was a lot bigger. And so they put up this gazebo and then they take it down after the ceremony. So that tells me this is something I can watch for. So we finally got some satellite imagery last week and I saw, sure enough, they're building this gazebo in the middle of Kimmel-Zang Square. You can clearly see that it matches exactly what it looked like when they built the ones for Putin and Lukashenko. So how far in advance

would they do that? Well, it was different. For Putin, they did it like many, I don't know, a week, or more in advance. For Lukashenko, they only built it three days in advance. So it's hard to say when she is arriving, based on that alone. But that plus, they made a bunch of airplanes away from near the terminal at the Pyongyang Airport. And this is something they also did for Putin. But they moved fewer planes this time, arrived with like 13 plus planes. It looks like Xi Jinping will come with fewer planes than.

Okay. These are signs to me that they were preparing for someone. So then all we're doing is mixing, well, North Korea is preparing for some foreign leader. And there's this Xi Jinping stuff in the news unconfirmed. Right. What things should we be looking for going forward? What are the next signs that you'd be keeping an eye out for? I think the announcement.

So like I said, yeah. And so we don't know how far in advance that would be. Maybe they're more secretive this time. Maybe it'll be a day in advance. So watch Xi Jinping's schedule. You know, I don't know if that's even public. Well, of course, we'll be keeping an eye out. Finally, Colin, you reported on North Korea's first large-scale solar farm in Hague,

built as state media continues, of course, to mention the country's strained energy situation. And let's start with, you know, what makes this solar farm... Well, it's not really significant in the... Comparatively. It's just a relatively small solar farm, but it's North Korea's first large-scale, you know, it's like, I forgot the number in my story, maybe 10 hectares large. So it's just row after row after row of solar panels. And this hasn't really existed in North Korea except for a few rows here and there of

solar panels installed by businesses or locals. So it's really just a beginning. If they can start building these everywhere, then that would be good for their energy shortages, which, like you said, they still mention it in the state media all the time. they're very open about it. Like, oh, yeah, we have shortage, energy shortage. Do you think this is mainly practical infrastructure project? Is it like more propaganda? Is it a mixture of both? Well, the thing is, can they maintain it? Can they get the most out of it?

You know, it's hard to say. I think there might be some methods through satellite imagery to figure out how effective it is. I don't know. I'd have to look into that. But it's probably, it's probably real. And it's probably, it's just, It depends on what national priority Kim Jong-un gives to this, or how much money he uses from his coffers abroad to buy tons of Chinese solar panels and start installing them everywhere. You know, they could surely do that. You know, it takes up land, which they need for agriculture.

I guess that's one thing, but there's a lot of unusable land. Like they're doing this next to a paper mill. I'm sure that they were using that land for agriculture, but maybe a bunch of this land is better used. All this industrial land is maybe better used for solar panels. Right. How much does North Korea rely on equipment and machinery and panels, it sounds like, from China? I would guess close to all of it.

I mean, I think it's hard to believe they're reporting on developing their own solar panel manufacturing industry. They haven't claimed anything like that. They just claim they're kind of developing it at research institutes and stuff like that. I'm sure that they could import the manufacturing capabilities from China and then start producing their own. But I don't know if that makes sense or not. So probably just cheaper for now to just buy all this stuff wholesale from China.

Right. I mean, I know you just mentioned that it's very hard to measure the actual, like, output and if this is going to even, you know, be productive. But do you think that we're going to end up seeing more projects like this, whether they be solar panels or, I don't know, even wind turbines or things like that going forward? Yeah, for sure. I mean, they talk incessantly in state media about what's the word, green energy. Yeah, renewable. Renewable energy. So it's just like anything, does it get the sustained attention from the leadership? Does it get abandoned? Can Kim Jong-un keep his, all the teachings about ideology?

Is that good enough to keep all these provincial officials that might be charged with pushing these projects forward? Is that enough to keep them interested? And is that enough to make them do that work? Or are they going to be lazy and form, what's the word, formative or whatever? They're always complaining about at the party meetings, about officials not doing what the party wants because they have lack incentive. So yeah, if the state, if Kim Jong-un pushed, gives the money to all these people and gives them clear plans and pays attention to it, then it could happen all across the country. If not, then it's going to be like what we see everywhere, which is abandoned projects and project that take decades. Well, to bring all these stories together,

we're seeing North Korea, you know, test new weapons, prepare this major warship for deployment, possibly have this high-level diplomatic meeting between the Chinese leader and Kim Jong-ur and promote energy infrastructure. Is there anything that's connecting all these developments? I mean, you can look at stuff like the upcoming Xi meeting potential, and the missile tests and standard interpretation is like,

well, he's not afraid of testing nuclear-capable missiles or whatever right before a Xi Jinping visit. And at this point, it's quite obvious. Xi Jinping is not opposed to these things. He doesn't, he's not going to change his plans because of these. It does, you know, in Kim Jong-un's eyes, he's like, well, this, you know, is at least signaling a definite intent that they cannot argue with or talk us down front. But I think all that's quite obvious already. So the Chinese connection on the economy is obviously the biggest trading partner.

They get almost everything from China. So this business relationship has been strong and growing, but there's a lot of strangeness to it since COVID. So this summit could prove a, it could provide a boost to North Korea's economy. It's just Kim Jong-heng is very careful. He doesn't want too much economic activity, too much freedom. He doesn't want many things taking away the focus from himself in the ideology. So it's all going to be modulated to bring it back to the modular launcher.

Well, to wrap things up and just one last question for you, if we take this summit, well, possible summer I should say out of the equation, because it seems like that might be the thing that's nearest on the horizon, dare I say. What else do you think is the most significant story that we should be watching out for in the coming days or even weeks? The ship going around the, I think it's going to be super fascinating to see. what kind of reactions occur from Seoul in Washington and I would guess

those would be different reactions. I would guess Washington might... I don't know. The the war ministry or whatever they're calling it in the U.S. these days might make a big deal out of it. The E.J. Myeong administration might

downplay it. We don't know. It'll be quite interesting. I don't think Nore is going to try to start any problems themselves with this. They're just kind of going to go around and then see what happens. Well, looking forward to having you back on, Colin, to discuss what said or not said. That's all for today, but I will link all your fantastic articles and the show notes. And thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. Our thanks to Brian Betts and David Choi for helping make this podcast happen. For more reporting, analysis and expert

insight on North Korea, visit NK News for the latest stories and NKPro for deeper analysis, data and research tools. You can also watch this episode on YouTube and be sure to follow us on social media for the latest updates, clips and behind the scenes content. I'm Alana Hill. Thank you for listening and we'll be back next time with more on the stories shaping North Korea.