SEOUL – North Korea has successfully tested a new hypersonic gliding missile, state media reported today, in what would be the nuclear-armed nation’s latest advance in weapons technology.
Yesterday’s launch was of “great strategic significance”, the official Korean Central News Agency said, as the North seeks to increase its defence capabilities a “thousand-fold”.
Hypersonic missiles move far faster and are more agile than standard ones, making them much harder for missile defence systems – on which the United States is spending billions – to intercept.
The launch from Jagang province “confirmed the navigational control and stability of the missile”, along with its “guiding manoeuvrability and the gliding flight characteristics of the detached hypersonic gliding warhead” and the engine, according to KCNA.
“The test results proved that all the technical specifications met the design requirements”, it added.
The launch of the missile, which it identified as the Hwasong-8, was watched by top official Pak Jong-chon, it said, making no mention of leader Kim Jong-un.
The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried a picture of the weapon – with a set of guidance fins at the base of its nose cone – ascending into the morning sky.
The South’s military had announced the launch shortly after it happened yesterday, but it did not reveal the missile’s maximum altitude and flight distance afterwards, information that it normally makes available within around an hour.
South Korean media reports cited unidentified sources as saying the projectile had “different flight features” from previous launches and President Moon Jae-in called for “comprehensive analysis” of the launch.
Both Koreas are building up their weapons capabilities in what could become an arms race on the divided peninsula, with ramifications for neighbouring Japan and China and the wider region.
The nuclear-armed North, which invaded the South in 1950, is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its banned nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programmes, and earlier this month said it had tested a long-range cruise missile.
Developing the hypersonic missile was one of five “top priority” tasks in the five-year plan for strategic weapons, KCNA said.
Since inheriting power following the death of his father nearly 10 years ago, Kim has overseen rapid improvements in the North’s arsenal, including developing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that can reach the whole of the continental US and by far its most powerful nuclear test to date.
In January, Kim offered a shopping list of goals that as well as hypersonic warheads also included a nuclear-powered submarine, military reconnaissance satellites, and solid-fuel ICBMs at a five-yearly congress of the ruling Workers’ Party – a meeting at which he described the US as his country’s “principal enemy”.
Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, said the North was looking to use its weapons development “as a means to make room for diplomatic manoeuvring as well as enhancing military posture”.
More launches could be expected in the future, he added: “In a way, the North's recent behaviour is very predictable.
“They had signalled military actions and are now executing them step by step.” – AFP, September 29, 2021
