South Korea plans to develop ground-to-ground GPS-guided munitions to better fend off threats posed by North Korea's latest multiple launch rocket systems, the Ministry of National Defense said in its five-year defense plan on Wednesday.

North Korea's MLRS has emerged as one of the most imminent security threats facing South Korea since the communist country announced what it claimed was the final test of a new high-caliber multiple rocket launcher earlier in the month.

With a range of 200 kilometers, the 300-millimeter-caliber multiple rocket launchers put roughly half of South Korea within their range.

In March alone, North Korea fired the multiple rocket launchers on at least three occasions, escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The ground-to-ground counter-artillery guided munitions South Korea plans to develop will have a range of 120 kilometers and be tasked with destroying North Korea's multiple rocket launchers and other long-range artillery weapons, according to the defense plan for 2017-2021.

The military has test-fired the new weapon several times and plans to finish the development by 2018 to start deployment from 2019.

"North Korea has some 300 long-range ground-based artillery weapons that threaten South Korea's capital area," a defense official said in a background briefing. "Our new system is designed to destroy North Korean artillery weapons in bunkers in the initial stages of a war," he said.

The five-year period will be a time of concentrated military forces buildup as it comes amid North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile threats, the ministry said.

In the five-year plan, the ministry also said that it will introduce anti-ballistic early-warning radar to better detect North Korea's firing of submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

It will also seek to develop carbon fiber bombs that can black out North Korea's electricity supplies, the ministry said. 

A total of 226.5 trillion won budget will be needed for the five-year military buildup plan, according to the defense ministry.

The top defense priority in the five-year vision is the installation of South Korea's air defense and interception systems, dubbed the "Kill Chain" and Korean Air and Missile Defense, the ministry said.

South Korea plans to complete the installation of the defense systems by mid-2020 when it will regain the currently Washington-held wartime command of South Korean forces.

With the forthcoming transfer, South Korea will take greater charge of defending itself on its own against North Korea's growing nuclear and missile capabilities.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, taking its pursuit of nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles that could reach as far as the mainland U.S. one step further.

Experts say the North may be coming close to making nuclear weapons small and light enough to fit onto a ballistic missile. But it has yet to secure the critical re-entry technology to complete an ICBM. (Yonhap)