SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Thursday that his government will set sweeping new military and construction targets at the Workers’ Party of Korea’s Ninth Congress, touting 600mm multiple rocket launchers presented at a ceremony in Pyongyang ahead of the meeting. State media KCNA quoted Kim describing the system as comparable to a precision ballistic missile and incorporating “AI technology” and a “compound guidance system,” as he pointed to the congress as the next stage in his self-reliant defense agenda, Feb. 19, 2026.
Kim Jong Un spotlights AI-guided launchers as congress nears
Kim attended a presentation ceremony Wednesday for 50 600mm-caliber multiple rocket launchers supplied by munitions workers as a symbolic “gift” to the party congress, according to Reuters’ account of the KCNA report. The event came as Pyongyang accelerates both weapons procurement and showcase politics ahead of the rare, high-profile gathering that typically sets multi-year policy and personnel directions.
KCNA quoted Kim as saying the 600mm system has “virtually no difference from a high-precision ballistic missile” in precision and power, and that it incorporates “AI technology and compound guidance system.” Kim also described the system as suitable for a “strategic mission,” wording that Reuters said Yonhap interpreted as a possible reference to a nuclear role.
North Korean state media has repeatedly portrayed the 600mm launcher family as a hybrid of long-range artillery and guided missile capability. That framing matters because it allows Kim Jong Un to emphasize battlefield-scale “tactical” strike options while still signaling that the weapons sit inside the country’s broader deterrence strategy.
Photos and reporting around the ceremony suggest the launchers are meant for rapid fielding rather than a one-off display. NK News reported that 50 transporter-erector launch vehicles were lined up near Pyongyang’s April 25 House of Culture, the venue where the Ninth Party Congress is expected to open in the coming days.
Kim Jong Un and the Ninth Party Congress
Kim Jong Un’s pledge to announce new targets at the congress comes as outside analysts measure his progress against the last major roadmap unveiled at the Eighth Party Congress in 2021. In a separate assessment ahead of the meeting, Reuters reported that North Korea appears to have advanced core nuclear and ballistic-missile programs while showing a more mixed record in conventional systems that could expand wartime options below the nuclear threshold — including drones, submarines and space-based surveillance.
That balance is central to how Kim Jong Un sells the congress domestically: conventional modernization offers visible deliverables such as new artillery units, while nuclear and missile advances remain the regime’s top shield against outside pressure. The same Reuters analysis noted that state media has highlighted drones and artificial intelligence as priorities for modern warfare, even as progress in submarine and satellite programs has been uneven.
Even before the ceremonial rollout of the 600mm launchers, the regime used weapons tests to underscore that message. In late January, North Korea said it test-fired an upgraded large-caliber multiple rocket launcher system under Kim Jong Un’s supervision, with four rockets hitting a target area 358.5 kilometers away, Yonhap News Agency reported. KCNA cited by Yonhap quoted Kim as saying the Ninth Party Congress would clarify “next-stage plans” to further bolster the country’s nuclear deterrent.
Neighboring militaries have treated the launch activity as part of a broader cycle of pressure and signaling. North Korea’s January launches of short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, reported by South Korea and Japan, were widely viewed as a show of force ahead of the congress, according to The Associated Press.
Alongside the military messaging, Kim Jong Un has also tied the run-up to the congress to domestic construction promises. KCNA said the launcher presentation happened the same day as a groundbreaking for a new building project in Pyongyang’s Hwasong District, reinforcing the regime’s long-running tactic of pairing security narratives with development imagery.
A long-running 600mm story that predates this congress
The 600mm launchers Kim Jong Un praised this week sit at the end of a yearslong effort to field heavy, guided rocket artillery in large numbers. North Korea has tested “super-large multiple rocket launchers” repeatedly since 2019, and KCNA has described them as central to new approaches to warfare on the peninsula.
In March 2020, Reuters reported that North Korea said it conducted a successful test of “super-large” multiple rocket launchers, with KCNA framing the system’s operational deployment as a “crucial” task tied to the party’s strategic defense intentions.
As the system matured, it began to appear in larger-scale drills intended to send political messages. In May 2024, Reuters reported that North Korea said it fired an 18-missile salvo in a drill guided by Kim Jong Un as a warning to South Korea, using 600mm “super-large” multiple rocket launchers.
That pattern parallels the broader arc of Kim Jong Un’s party-congress messaging. When the Eighth Party Congress closed in January 2021, Reuters reported that Kim called for “maximum military power” and greater nuclear war deterrence — language that foreshadowed the heavy emphasis on weapons development that has defined the years since.
What to watch next
With the Ninth Party Congress expected to begin soon, the immediate question is whether Kim Jong Un uses the meeting to announce another sweeping list of weapons priorities — and how prominently he links artificial intelligence, drones and precision strike systems to his deterrence narrative.
For South Korea, Japan and the United States, the rollout of mass-produced 600mm launchers adds pressure because it suggests the North is moving from testing to fielding. For Kim Jong Un, the optics are also political: a line of new launch vehicles, a promise of fresh goals and a construction groundbreaking all reinforce an argument that the state is both safer and “building” — even under sanctions and deepening isolation.
