North Korea has tested a cluster-bomb warhead designed for tactical ballistic missiles and says it will put four types of cluster warheads into operational service before the end of the year, its state media reported on Sunday, November 1, 2026.
The test was carried out on Saturday, October 31, by the country's Missile Administration to assess the combat adaptability and power of a cluster-bomb warhead mounted on tactical ballistic missiles, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Research institutes under the administration said the Standard Type 2 cluster-bomb warhead "is capable of turning into ashes a target area of 12 to 13 hectares with its highest-density power" — roughly the area of 18 soccer fields.
Fired toward the Yellow Sea
South Korea's military said it had been tracking the launch, which was fired from an area near Chongju in northwestern North Korea toward the Yellow Sea, and that South Korea and the United States had been monitoring related movements and maintaining readiness before the launch. Seoul did not separately announce the launch on Saturday.
The general director of the Missile Administration said cluster-bomb warheads are classified into four categories depending on their purposes, including standard and special-purpose types, and that "within this year we will enable units to select and use all those types according to operational aims and specific features of targets."
Photos released by KCNA showed a projectile firing from a mobile launcher with an orange exhaust plume, and submunitions exploding across a broad area. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was not present at Saturday's test, although he had overseen a test-launch of cluster-bomb warheads mounted on a ballistic missile in April, accompanied by his daughter Ju Ae. Analysts identified the missile in the latest test as likely the Hwasong-11, a short-range system sometimes described as North Korea's version of the ATACMS.
A drumbeat of weapons drills
The cluster-bomb test is the latest in a rapid series of North Korean weapons drills. In recent weeks Pyongyang has also trialled attack drones, a new precision-guided torpedo system and an intermediate-range hypersonic missile, and on October 29 it launched about 10 ballistic missiles from its east coast toward the sea.
Cluster munitions scatter dozens to hundreds of smaller submunitions over a wide area, and their use is restricted by an international convention that neither North Korea, the United States, Russia nor China has joined. The test adds to tensions on the Korean Peninsula just days before the United States holds its midterm elections.
Sources: KCNA via The Hindu, November 1, 2026; Korea Times, November 1, 2026; Yonhap via Seoul Economic Daily, November 1, 2026.