South Korea Plans to Develop ‘Frankenmissile’ to Counter North Korea

South Korean military has announced plans to develop ‘Frankenmissile’ to powerful enough to counter North Korea’s missile and nuclear capabilities.

The Army in its National Assembly’s Defense Committee annual parliamentary report stated that they would develop ‘Hyunmoo IV’ surface-to-surface missile powerful enough to destroy North Korea’s underground military facilities, Korea Herald reported Thursday.

Combined with indigenous tactical surface-to-surface missiles and Hyunmoo-class intermediate-range ballistic missiles, the advanced pre-emptive strike capability would inflict “unbearable cost” to the North by neutralizing the North’s nuclear and missile sites, as well as long-range artillery units, the army said. 

“We would use those three-types of missiles as the first salvo of the missile strike and concentrate them during the initial phase of war to destroy North Korea’s long-range artillery units and missiles located in ballistic missile operating area,” the army said in its report to a parliamentary audit. 

South Korea has been suspected of working on advancing ballistic missiles capability since it struck a deal with the US to scrap limits on the missiles’ payload in September. Previously, Seoul was banned from fitting warheads weighing more than 500 kilograms on its ballistic missiles with a range of over 800 kilometers. 

The development of such an advanced ballistic missile is a part of the Army’s effort to establish a “game-changing” operational concept, which is designed to minimize civilian casualties and end the war as soon as possible, the Army said. 

The “five-pillar” concept calls for the military to develop high-precision powerful missile, establish agile maneuver corps, build units using drones and robots, develope advanced battle system and create a special warfare brigade for “deception strikes” against North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un.