Jeong Kyeong-du Defense Minister Publicly Announces "Hypersonic Missile Development"

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-du stated that the development of hypersonic missiles will be expedited. This is the first time a Defense Minister has publicly mentioned that the Republic of Korea Armed Forces are developing hypersonic missile technology.

Minister Jeong attended the 50th anniversary ceremony of the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) in Daejeon on the afternoon of the 5th and said in his congratulatory speech, "Going forward, our military will accelerate the development of technologies such as guided weapons equipped with precision guidance and control functions, long-range and hypersonic missiles, high-power warheads, and Korean-style satellite navigation systems to further advance missile capabilities."

This is analyzed as a demonstration of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces' determination to strengthen their response capabilities, considering the trend of neighboring countries around the Korean Peninsula such as the United States, China, Russia, and Japan developing hypersonic missiles as next-generation weapons.

Minister Jeong stated, "Recently, we have succeeded in developing ballistic missiles with sufficient range to maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula and warheads with the world's largest weight." He was referring to the 'Hyunmoo-4' missile with a range of 800 km and a warhead weight of 2 tons.

He introduced, "Our military possesses world-class precision strike capabilities that can deter war and secure battlefield superiority in emergencies. We have ballistic missiles 'Hyunmoo' launched from the ground to attack enemy strategic bases, and the 'Bigung' surface-to-ship guided rocket, which is the world's first among similar weapons to have automatic target acquisition and tracking capabilities, as well as world-class accuracy and destructive power in land, sea, and air precision-guided weapons."

Minister Jeong emphasized, "Our military is dramatically enhancing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities that do not miss even the smallest movements in the sky, sea, and space, acquiring and analyzing military information. I am confident that soon we will become a country possessing independent reconnaissance satellites, which will dramatically improve our military's intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities."

He continued, stating that last month on the 21st, the Republic of Korea Armed Forces successfully launched the first military-dedicated communication satellite with improved information processing speed, resistance to radio interference, and networking capabilities, thereby elevating national defense space power to a new level.

He explained, "The newly established 'Military Satellite Communication System (ANASIS)-II' will provide reliable communication capabilities not only to military command posts but also to armored vehicles, warships, and submarines even in environments with intentional radio interference. It will connect surveillance, reconnaissance, command and control, and precision strike systems into a single network, raising the capability to conduct three-dimensional land, sea, and air maneuver operations to a higher level."

Minister Jeong urged, "I hope you will devote yourselves to research and development of new weapon systems that can change the paradigm of the battlefield, such as new-concept guided weapons, stealth unmanned aerial vehicles, and high-power laser weapons, further strengthening advanced defense science and technology capabilities leading the Fourth Industrial Revolution era."

He added, "I expect the 'Restructuring of the Agency for Defense Development,' promoted as part of Defense Reform 2.0, to be completed without fail, achieving the goal of securing world-class defense science and technology capabilities ranked sixth globally. Also, please devote more efforts to research activities responding to non-traditional security threats such as developing treatments for COVID-19 and preparing for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear warfare."

Regarding the adoption of missile guidelines that lifted restrictions on the use of solid fuel in space launch vehicles, Minister Jeong evaluated, "This has created a new turning point that allows our military to accelerate capabilities to respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, military intelligence surveillance reconnaissance satellites, and aerospace research and development."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.