(Bloomberg) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw tests of multiple rocket launcher systems that can deliver nuclear weapons in a drill this week that South Korea said could be a way for Pyongyang to market its newest missiles to Russia.

North Korea tested “super-large multiple rocket launchers” in drills Monday aimed at proving “the might and the real war capabilities of the weapon system,” the state’s official Korean Central News Agency reported on Tuesday. It also released pictures of Kim at the event watching six missiles take to the sky and celebrating later with a cigarette in his hand.

The 600 millimeter rockets were fired in barrages from six launchers, according to KCNA. Weapons experts said the projectiles were likely KN-25 short-range ballistic missiles from the same family of weapons Kim has sent to Russia for use in its assault on Ukraine.

Before North Korea released details and photos of its latest weapons tests, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonsik said it wasn’t clear if the drills were for bolstering Pyongyang’s front-line forces or for a trial on how the Kremlin could use the missiles in attacking Ukraine. 

“There is a good chance that they are a final performance test before exporting to Russia,” Shin told reporters.

The US, South Korea and others have accused North Korea of sending to Russia its newest nuclear-capable ballistic missiles that are easy to hide, quick to deploy and hard to shoot down. Images provided by the US indicate they are Hwasong-11s, a wide class of short-range ballistic missile that can reliably hit targets with a high degree of precision, weapons experts say. 

The KN-25 is a part of this class. The missile has a range of about 380 kilometers (235 miles) and was first tested in 2019, when it was fired from a launcher with four tubes, according to the CSIS Missile Defense Project. 

Prosecutors in Kharkiv said in March that Russian forces have fired North Korean missiles at Ukraine about 50 times since the start of its invasion, providing documentation for what it said included a Hwasong-11 family missile, specialist service NK News reported. 

North Korea showed six missiles firing off at the same time in photos it released on state media. South Korea and Japan detected two launches about 40 minutes apart, with Tokyo saying it saw three missiles and Seoul saying more than six missiles were fired off. The differing numbers could indicate the difficulty in keeping track of missiles fired simultaneously in close proximity.

“What is a bit confusing and even disconcerting is how these multiple launchers were initially assessed by both ROK and Japan,” said Joseph Dempsey, a research associate for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He referred to South Korea by its formal name. 

Shin Jong-woo, a researcher at the Korea Defense and Security Forum think tank, said it’s hard to precisely detect all the missiles with radar when they are flying in such proximity. 

The Hwasong-11 class of missiles have ranges of 380 to 800 kilometers and can increase the pool of weapons Russian President Vladimir Putin can draw upon as his invasion of Ukraine enters its third year.

South Korea’s defense minister Shin said North Korea has sent some 7,000 shipping containers of weapons since Kim and Putin met for a summit in September. They can hold about 3 million rounds of 152 mm shells. 

Russia in return is providing North Korea with food, raw materials and parts used in weapons manufacturing, he said. The food aid has helped Kim stabilize prices for necessities, said Shin, the South Korean minister. If the arms transfers grow, Russia will likely send more military technology to Kim, increasing Pyongyang’s threat to the region, he added.

The value of the artillery alone is likely several billion dollars and the aid from Russia could represent the biggest boost to North Korea’s economy since Kim took power. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the arms transfers accusations despite a multitude of satellite photos released by research groups and the US government showing the flow of weapons from North Korea to Russia and then to munitions dumps near the border with Ukraine.

The Hwasong-11 missiles have been priced at about $5 million each, according to data compiled by the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses and released in 2022. But since then, Kim has ramped up production, which is likely to drive down manufacturing costs.

The transfer of missiles has raised worries North Korea may look to export missiles to countries other than Russia. North Korea has been exporting missile technology and systems since the 1980s but saw opportunities dwindle due to sanctions and other issues, the UK think tank Royal United Services Institute said in a paper last year. It added that the trade with Moscow could open doors for Kim. 

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