Yes, that’s what the Popular Science article at the link is describing.
There would be no explosion, the destruction is entirely kinetic. And it doesn’t offer a return address like a missile does. I suspect that we could have used one on the Nork’s Punggye-ri nuclear tunnel complex. 100-200 “workers” were said to have died. If those were nuke techs and scientists rather than tunnel diggers it would have put a dent in Kim’s nuke program.
A few weeks before the Nork’s tunnel collapse a reporter had asked Sec Def Mattis about the sort of weapons we might use if we went to war against North Korea. Mattis mentioned kinetic weapons without going into detail as to what that might include.
http://www.businessinsider.com/mattis-secret-military-options-for-north-korea-2017-9
“Previously, Mattis said a war with North Korea would “involve the massive shelling of an ally’s capital, which is one of the most densely packed cities on earth”, referring to Seoul.
“It’s difficult to understand what the Pentagon could do to stop a North Korean nuclear program or take out its leader, Kim Jong Un, while preventing Pyongyang from fighting back. Artillery, rockets, missiles, and other munitions are scattered throughout the North — many in secret locations — and Kim’s government maintains an ironclad hold on power.
“And with every known military option — from launching Tomahawk cruise missiles to airstrikes — North Korea is likely to interpret any strike, however limited, “as a prelude to invading or overthrowing the government, even if the United States insists otherwise,” The Atlantic reported, citing Daryl Press, a scholar of nuclear deterrence at Dartmouth College.
So what does Mattis have in mind? He wouldn’t say, but he did let slip one interesting comment.
“Just to clarify, you said that there were possible military options that would not create a grave risk to Seoul,” a reporter said later. “Are we talking kinetic options as well?”
“Yes, I don’t want to go into that,” Mattis said, agreeing that his closely held military option involved kinetic action, a euphemism to describe lethal military force.”
Yeah, like a metorite doesn't explode either. Technically true. But the heat and effect on water and other materials is pretty much "like" an explosion. Tremendous kinetic energy.
It's the sort of weapon you don't want the other guy to have, that's for sure.