North Korea "Hypersonic Missile Test Launch"... Kim Jong-un Absent (Summary)

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] North Korea confirmed on the 6th that it conducted a test launch of a hypersonic missile the previous day.

Korean Central News Agency reported that "the National Defense Science Institute conducted a test launch of a hypersonic missile on the 5th."

The test launch was observed by senior officials from the Workers' Party Central Committee's Military Industry Department and the National Defense Science sector, but Kim Jong-un, General Secretary of the Workers' Party, did not attend.

The agency stated, "After launch, the missile separated and performed a lateral maneuver of 120 km from the initial launch azimuth to the target azimuth during the flight phase of the hypersonic glide warhead, accurately hitting the target set at 700 km without error. Additionally, the reliability of the fuel ampoule system under winter weather conditions was also verified."

North Korea first conducted a test launch of the newly developed hypersonic missile Hwasong-8 on September 28 last year. This test launch reaffirmed the stability of existing functions and evaluated the performance of the newly introduced lateral maneuver technology in the separated hypersonic glide warhead, according to the agency.

The agency explained the significance of this experiment, stating, "The consecutive test successes in the hypersonic missile sector accelerate the modernization tasks of the national strategic forces presented at the 8th Party Congress and fulfill the most important core task among the top five priority tasks in the strategic weapons sector of the five-year plan."

Meanwhile, the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that North Korea fired one ballistic missile presumed projectile into the East Sea on the morning of the previous day.

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