S Korea’s Hyunmoo-5 ‘monster missile’ takes centre stage at military parade
Al Jazeera
South Korea has shown off its most powerful ballistic missile for the first time in an annual military parade which signals the country’s readiness to respond to North Korean threats.
The Hyunmoo-5 – which analysts say is capable of carrying an 8-tonne conventional warhead that can penetrate deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers in North Korea – was the centrepiece of the Armed Forces Day parade at a Seoul airbase which also included some 5,300 troops, 340 types of military equipment and aircraft flypasts.
A second, smaller parade took place on the streets of Seoul, drawing large crowds.
“If North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons, it will face the resolute and overwhelming response of our military and the [South Korea]-US alliance,” President Yoon Suk-yeol told thousands of troops who gathered at the base on Tuesday. “That day will be the end of the North Korean regime.”
“The North Korean regime must abandon the delusion that nuclear weapons will protect them,” Yoon said.