North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a test of an “updated” 240mm multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) on Tuesday, according to state media, the fourth such test since February.

The rocket system has been “technically updated in its maneuverability and concentrated firing capability” and has “proved to be advantageous in all indices,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Wednesday.

This includes in its “newly applied guidance system, controllability and destructive power.”

Kim reportedly “set forth an important policy” at the test site on “producing new artillery pieces and equipping army units with them.”

The test coincides with the Ulchi Freedom Shield military drills in South Korea, including the joint U.S.-ROK Ssangyong 2024 (“double dragon”) amphibious exercises that started on Monday. 

However, the brief KCNA report only focused on internal development goals and did not mention the large-scale drills or international relations.

Photos released with the report showed one of the 240mm system’s newer transporter erector launcher vehicles (TELs) firing a barrage of rockets from an unidentified location on the west coast.

NK News analysis of the photos and satellite imagery shows the rockets struck near the seawall of an active tideland reclamation project in Kwaksan County, North Phyongan Province that began construction in early 2023.

A KCNA photo of Kim watching a trajectory map for the test suggests the rockets were launched in a northwestern direction from down the coast.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) did not disclose whether it detected the launch in real time on Tuesday. JCS has previously claimed that it does detect and track such launches but does not feel it is necessary to push out alerts about shorter-range North Korean rocket tests. 

North Korea conducted three 240mm MLRS tests with “updated” guidance and control systems this year, in February, April and May. At least 20 older TELs also fired presumably non-updated 240mm rockets during a large-scale drill in March.

Wednesday’s report said multiple factories under the Second Economic Committee are manufacturing the newer 240mm rockets. One is known to be the Tonghungsan Machine Factory in Hamhung that Kim inspected in Feb. 2024 and Aug. 2023.

State media’s report on the April test said a “newly established” military factory was producing the new 240mm MLRSs, possibly referring to one in Songgan, Jagang Province built rapidly in the last year.

The Kanggye General Tractor Plant up the road from there appears to have produced at least older 240mm rocket models in the past and may still be.

North Korea also revealed in May that the Pyeonghwa Motors plant in Nampho, a former joint venture with South Korea, has recently produced at least 100 newly designed TELs for the updated 240mm rockets. Construction work to expand the factory is currently underway.

Experts have raised the possibility that North Korea is shopping the 240mm MLRS and its TELs to Russia and other countries as part of its recent major boost in weapons export activities.

State media has promoted mass production of these rockets and their launch vehicles for Korean People’s Army (KPA) units facing South Korea, and has even equipped disguised civilian trucks with 240mm rocket launchers for use against the ROK by reserve forces.

Tuesday’s test was North Korea’s first known rocket or missile launch since early July. Kim Jong Un also reportedly inspected new “suicide drones” aimed at South Korea on Saturday.

Earlier this month, Kim Jong Un dismissed potential domestic cynicism about over-focusing on military development amid a major flood crisis in the northwest, saying advanced weapons are needed to more fundamentally protect the people from foreign threats.

Edited by Arius Derr