A mock North Korean Scud-B missile, left, and South Korean missiles are displayed at the Korea War Memorial in Seoul, April 18. North Korea said April 18 it had test-fired a new type of "tactical guided weapon" the day before, its first such test in nearly half a year. AP-Yonhap

By Jung Da-min

North Korea's recent test launch of its new tactical weapon wasn't of a ballistic missile but was believed to be a "weapon for ground combat," military analysts said Sunday.

They said the weapon test announced by North Korea on April 18 did not appear to involve a ballistic missile given that there were no alarming announcements from the United States, Japan or Seoul.

Rather, they speculated that the test could have involved "anything" from a small anti-tank missile to relatively routine artillery as the test of ballistic missiles or surface-to-ship missiles would have been detected by radar.

Shin Jong-woo, a senior analyst at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, said the U.S. and Japan showed a relatively muted response to the test, indicating that the test was not on their radar.

"We cannot really confirm what type of weapon it was, as we are just speculating based on our detection system, but from what the Joint Chiefs of Staff has so far said, it is cautiously thought that the North has developed a Spike anti-tank guided missile," Shin said, referring to the Israeli guided missile with a maximum range of around 25 kilometers.

On April 17, North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un guided a test-fire of a "new-type of tactical guided weapon" conducted by the Academy of Defence Science, according to a report made by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) the following day.

The test was the first public weapon test since the failure of the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim in Hanoi, Vietnam, late February. No deal was signed as Trump didn't accept the North's request for an easing of economic sanctions in exchange for the regime's promise to completely shut down its major Yongbyon nuclear complex.

But citing recent remarks by Trump and Kim, both of whom said they were open to hold a third summit, in addition to the ongoing diplomatic efforts by Washington, Pyongyang and Seoul to keep the nuclear diplomacy working, experts said the North would not want to break the ongoing momentum for nuclear dialogue with the United States.

Given these perspectives, they stressed the test seemed to be targeting the internal unity of North Korean society, while its leader Kim has yet to bring any substantial results in terms of getting economic concessions.

"Kim's guidance on the test following his inspection of an exercise by an air force unit the day before, were all planned moves to tighten the internal unity of North Korean society while also giving a message to the outside world that it is carrying on its self-reliant economy despite the ongoing sanctions," said Kim Dong-yub, a professor at Kyungnam University's Far East Institute.

"By showing that the government is committed to the economy but never neglects security issues, [North Korean leadership] is trying to dismiss North Korean people's concerns about the possible military actions by Washington after the breakdown of the Hanoi summit with the U.S., so that they can focus on economic activities."