North Korea Says It Tested a Cluster-Bomb Missile Warhead as Rubio Says Trump Is Open to Kim Talks

Photo: U.S. Department of State photo by Freddie Everett, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain (Oct. 31, 2026). Secretary of State Marco Rubio at his G20 news conference in Atlanta.

North Korea’s state media said the country tested a cluster-bomb warhead for its tactical ballistic missiles on Saturday, Oct. 31, and would equip its units with four types of the warheads by the end of the year. South Korea’s military said Sunday, Nov. 1, that it had tracked the launch together with the United States. On Saturday in Atlanta, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Donald Trump would be open to talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, though no meeting has been set.

The North’s Korean Central News Agency !Unverified claim, KCNA (North Korean state media) reported the test. TBR’s Indo-Pacific war report carried the first word of it Sunday morning; this story adds the claimed details, the South Korean military’s account and the diplomatic backdrop.

What North Korea says it tested

According to KCNA, as reported by Yonhap, research institutes under the country’s Missile Administration ran the test on Saturday, Oct. 31, to assess how a cluster-bomb warhead mounted on a tactical ballistic missile would perform in combat. KCNA said a warhead it called “Standard Type 2” could reduce “a target area of 12 to 13 hectares” to ashes “with its highest-density power.” That is roughly 30 to 32 acres, by TBR’s conversion. !Unverified claim, KCNA (North Korean state media)

The Missile Administration’s general director said the warheads fall into four categories depending on their purpose, KCNA reported. “Within this year we will enable units to select and use all those types according to operational aims and specific features of targets,” the director was quoted as saying. !Unverified claim, KCNA (North Korean state media) Reuters, in a report carried by CNA, described the same claims. None of the performance figures has been independently confirmed.

A cluster munition opens in flight and scatters dozens to hundreds of smaller bomblets, letting a single weapon strike many targets across a wide area, Yonhap noted.

Seoul confirms a launch, a day later

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday that a missile had been fired toward the Yellow Sea from around Chongju county in the country’s northwest. “Under close information sharing between South Korea and the United States, (we) tracked relevant activities before North Korea’s missile launch and maintained a readiness posture,” the JCS said, according to Yonhap. The JCS statement confirms that a missile was launched; it does not address North Korea’s claims about the warhead.

The timing of the announcement was unusual. Yonhap said South Korea’s military normally announces North Korean ballistic missile launches shortly after they occur, but this time it spoke the day after.

Shin Jong-woo, secretary-general of the Seoul-based Korea Defense and Security Forum, told Yonhap the missile appeared to be a Hwasong-11 Ra. North Korea said in April that it had tested cluster bombs on that short-range missile in a launch watched by Kim and his daughter, Ju-ae.

The test is part of a busy run. Reuters reported that North Korea fired about 10 ballistic missiles toward the sea from its east coast on Oct. 29, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was in South Korea for a summit, and that Pyongyang recently held a drone exhibition. Analysts cited by Reuters said the tests could be part of an effort to modernize the military, which gained combat experience after North Korea sent troops to fight for Russia in Ukraine.

Rubio: Trump ‘would be open’ to talks

Speaking at a news conference after the Group of 20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta on Saturday, Rubio said: “I think the president’s perspective is, if North Korea and Kim Jong-un is prepared to talk with the United States about issues that are of concern to us and of concern to our allies, like South Korea, he would be open to doing it.” He added, “Nothing has been scheduled. I do not have anything to announce in regards to that today,” Yonhap reported.

Rubio was answering a question from Voice of America about what concrete steps the administration was taking to bring North Korea back to negotiations. “I think if something productive could come from such talks, he’d be open to doing it again,” he said, according to VOA. Trump and Kim met three times during Trump’s first term.

Rubio also pushed back on the idea that a meeting would reward Pyongyang. “The president doesn’t view talks, doesn’t view meeting with someone as a concession,” he said. “I know in traditional foreign policy, meeting with someone or inviting someone to something is viewed as a concession that somehow legitimizes them.”

His comments came a day after he, Japan’s Toshimitsu Motegi and South Korea’s Cho Hyun restated their goal of North Korea’s complete denuclearization at a three-way meeting in Atlanta.

Visas, a crypto theft and the DMZ

Asked about recent U.S. visa refusals or delays involving South Korean lawmakers, Rubio said, “I think there was one particular visa individual, that there was an issue about regarding behavior, perhaps a couple decades ago. But we’ll work through that at a bilateral basis,” according to Korea JoongAng Daily. He did not name anyone. Rep. Jin Sung-joon of the ruling Democratic Party said he had received a U.S. visa for a trip to U.S. Pacific Command days after saying his application was rejected, Yonhap reported; former party chairman Jung Chung-rae had a similar case earlier in October.

The North also faces U.S. scrutiny over cybercrime: the FBI on Saturday blamed North Korean hackers for the theft of more than $6 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance, and Trump said that if Pyongyang was responsible, “we’ll talk to North Korea about it,” as TBR reported Sunday.

At the G20, Cho laid out Seoul’s position on the Sept. 21 land mine blast inside the Demilitarized Zone that wounded three South Korean soldiers, the foreign ministry said, according to Yonhap. Seoul blames the North, which denies responsibility. The ministry said Cho told the meeting that communication between the two Koreas matters more than ever and that deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow has serious security implications for the peninsula and the region.

Key claims and who is making them

Sources

• Yonhap: N. Korea tests cluster bomb mountable on tactical ballistic missiles
• Reuters via CNA: North Korea says defence research institutes tested major weapon system
• Yonhap: Trump open to talks with N. Korean leader but no meeting scheduled, Rubio says
• Voice of America: Rubio on a possible Trump-Kim meeting
• Yonhap: FM outlines S. Korea’s position on DMZ mine blast at G20

Additional sources

• Korea JoongAng Daily: Trump open to talks with Kim Jong-un but nothing is scheduled, Rubio says
• Yonhap: Trump says U.S. will talk to N. Korea if it is behind Binance hack