North Korea just built a bomb that wipes out thirteen hectares

North Korea just tested a bomb that wipes out 13 hectares in one hit.

State media KCNA says the country's defence research institutes tested a cluster-bomb warhead built for tactical ballistic missiles. Korea Times says the test itself happened a day before that report went out.

So what does it actually do? North Korea says one standard warhead can destroy 12 to 13 hectares of ground. That's about 18 football pitches, flattened by a single missile.

Here's how. A cluster bomb isn't one explosion. It's one shell that pops open and scatters dozens, sometimes hundreds, of smaller bombs across a wide area. One missile, many targets.

And North Korea isn't stopping at one type. An official at the missile administration says the warheads come in four categories. Different units will get different types depending on the job. The plan is to have all of them ready for the military by the end of this year.

But here's the thing. This isn't new. It's an upgrade.

Earlier this year, North Korea tested this same idea on a missile called the Hwasong-11 Ra. Five missiles, fired about 136 kilometres, hit a target area of around 12.5 to 13 hectares. Kim Jong Un watched that one himself, alongside his daughter, Kim Ju Ae.

And before that, an even smaller version went on the Hwasong-11Ka missile. That one could only take out 6.5 to 7 hectares.

So line them up. 7 hectares. Then 13. Now 13 again, but on a different missile. Each test bigger, or at least as big, as the last.

One more thing worth knowing. Neither North Korea nor South Korea has signed the treaty that bans cluster munitions. So nothing here breaks any agreement either country is actually part of.

And this test didn't happen in isolation.

A few days ago, North Korea fired about ten short-range ballistic missiles from Wonsan into the sea. They flew roughly 250 kilometres. That happened on the exact day Friedrich Merz, Germany's Chancellor, was in Seoul meeting Lee Jae-myung, South Korea's President, before heading to the DMZ.