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South Korea plans to develop ground-to-ground guided munitions to better fend off threats posed by North Korea's latest multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), the Ministry of National Defense said in its five-year defense plan on Wednesday.
North Korea's MLRS has emerged as one of the most imminent security threats facing South Korea since the communist country announced what it claimed was the final test of a new high-caliber multiple rocket launcher earlier in the month.
With a range of 200 kilometers, the 300-millimeter-caliber multiple rocket launchers can put roughly half of South Korea within its range.
In March alone, North Korea fired the multiple rocket launchers at least on three occasions, escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The ground-to-ground counter-artillery guided munitions, South Korea plans to develop, will have a range of 120 kilometers and be tasked with destroying North Korea's multiple rocket launchers and other long-range artillery weapons, according to the defense plan for 2017-2021.
The military has test-fired the new weapon several times and plans to finish the development by 2018 to start deployment from 2019.
The five-year period will be a time of concentrated military forces buildup as it comes amid North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile threats, as well as the approach of Seoul's takeover of the wartime operational control of South Korean forces from Washington, the ministry said.
In the five-year plan, the ministry also said that it will introduce anti-ballistic early-warning radar to better detect North Korea's firing of submarine launched ballistic missiles.
It will also seek to develop carbon fiber bombs that can black out North Korea's electricity supplies, the ministry said.
(YONHAP)
