North Korea is on the verge of deploying tactical nuclear weapons
17 September, 2024 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the Hwasan-31 tactical nuclear warhead, March 27, 2023. Photo credits: Rodong Sinmun News 1 North Korea has adapted the Hwasan-31 tactical nuclear warhead to install short-range ballistic missiles and MLRS.
South Korean media Dong-A Ilbo reported on this with reference to the Defense Intelligence Agency. On September 12, the South Korean intelligence service confirmed the possibility of installing a new Hwasong-31 nuclear warhead on most of the new North Korean missiles aimed at South Korea. "North Korea's nuclear weapon miniaturization technology has reached a significant level," the agency stated in response to a request from Dong-A Ilbo.
Unveiled in March last year, the Hwasan-31 has been miniaturized and standardized enough to be mounted on KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles and even on 600mm KN-25 multiple launch rocket system shells. It can also be used on cruise missiles of the Hwasal-1 and Hwasal-2 families with a range of more than 2,000 kilometers, Haeil-5-23 underwater attack drones, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and the Hwasong-11D short-range ballistic missile. 
According to intelligence, this result was achieved by reducing the diameter of the munition to about 50 centimeters. This is sufficient for placement on the above-mentioned carriers. The warhead's nuclear charge is likely to be in the form of a round, spherical shape.
Its yield is estimated at about ten kilotons, which is equivalent to the explosion of 10 thousand tons of TNT. At the same time, there are unconfirmed assumptions that the charge could have been made using an alternative technology in the form of an oval-shaped ball, which makes it possible to increase the amount of active substance in a device with a limited diameter and, therefore, its power.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the Hwasan-31 tactical nuclear warhead, March 27, 2023. Photo credits: Rodong Sinmun News 1
South Korea considers its northern neighbor's build-up of tactical nuclear weapons as a greater threat than the emergence of strategic nuclear weapons. "The modernization of nuclear warhead technology to increase the power of a surprise missile strike that can hit the whole of South Korea is a bigger threat in our view.
It seems that we will soon move to the actual deployment of the Hwasan-31," a government source shared.
Militarnyi recently reported that the DPRK showed its uranium enrichment plant and its internal structure for the first time, including rows of centrifuges for separating radioactive isotopes.