[Yang Nak-gyu's Defence Club] North Korea Develops Another Supersonic Missile

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The ballistic missile North Korea launched into the East Sea on the 5th is reported to be a new hypersonic missile with a speed exceeding Mach 5. It is highly likely to be a test launch of a follow-up model to the ‘Hwasong-8’ first tested on September 28 last year.

On the 6th, the Korean Central News Agency reported, "The National Defense Science Institute conducted a hypersonic missile test launch on January 5."

Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission, did not attend the test launch that day, suggesting that it has not yet been operationalized. North Korea’s ballistic missile launch came 78 days after the test launch of a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) on October 19 last year. Compared to the first launch of this year, it is about two weeks earlier than the previous year. Because of this, there is also analysis that this is a multi-purpose move reflecting North Korea’s ongoing defense strengthening policy since the 8th Party Congress in January last year and pressuring changes in South Korea and the U.S.

Inside and outside the military, it is presumed that the missile used an ampoule-type fuel device, similar to last September. Ampoule-type means that liquid fuel is contained in a container and inserted each time before launch. Unlike the conventional injection-type liquid fuel supply method, it shortens the injection time, allowing rapid and constant launches comparable to solid fuel.

A distinctive feature of this missile is that its warhead and shape differ from the Hwasong-8, raising the possibility that two types of hypersonic missiles have been developed. The hypersonic missile launched this time is identical in shape to the new mobile reentry vehicle (MARV) unveiled by North Korea at the Defense Development Exhibition last October.

The MARV shape uses wings mounted on the body’s top, bottom, left, and right to change direction in the final flight phase, disrupting missile defense systems. The MARV-shaped missile North Korea revealed also has wings enabling maneuvering on all sides, a feature shared by other MARVs such as the U.S. Pershing and China’s DF-15.

North Korea stated, "After launch, the missile separated and performed a 120 km lateral maneuver from the initial launch azimuth to the target azimuth during the flight phase of the hypersonic gliding warhead, hitting the target set at 700 km without error." This is analyzed to mean that the missile can maintain a horizontal state at the target altitude and perform irregular maneuvers left and right.

Shin Jong-woo, Senior Research Fellow at the Korea Defense & Security Forum (KODEF), analyzed, "This hypersonic missile is a second type with a conical shape and wings, different from the glider form of the Hwasong-8. It seems that the glider shape, which has excellent flight capability, could not achieve hypersonic speed in the first test, so they tried Mach 5 hypersonic speed with the conical-shaped second type."

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