North Korea Fired 7 Missiles in January... "Completed Key Strategic Weapon Tasks Last Month"

North Korea fired another projectile into the East Sea on the 30th. This marks the seventh show of force since the beginning of the new year, coming just three days after launching two ground-to-ground tactical guided missiles on the 27th. The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced in a text message sent to the press corps at 7:57 a.m. that North Korea had launched an unidentified projectile into the East Sea. The photo shows citizens watching the related news at Seoul Station on the same day. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] North Korea, which launched seven missiles last month, praised itself for "completing the core tasks of the 5-year national defense plan" last month.

On the 1st, the Korean Central News Agency reported in an article titled "Our Country's January, Marching Forward with New Steps of Victory with High Morale," stating, "The news that our Party's infinitely loyal defense scientists and technicians have completed the most important core task among the top five priority tasks in the strategic weapons sector of the 5-year plan has further boosted infinite confidence and vitality in the general advance formation."

It added, "The successive thunderous successes of our style Juche weapons are a powerful roar that demonstrates to the world the iron truth that the march of our country, driven by the will of ten million people to thoroughly implement the Party's policy, cannot be blocked by any force as it boldly opens an era of vigorous progress and dynamism."

The "most important core task" mentioned in the report appears to refer to hypersonic missiles. Kim Jong-un, General Secretary of the Workers' Party, instructed to accelerate the development of hypersonic missiles at the 8th Party Congress last January, and North Korea test-fired its first hypersonic missile, the Hwasong-8, in September last year.

Subsequently, on the 5th and 11th of last month, North Korea launched missiles claimed to be hypersonic missiles consecutively. Our Ministry of National Defense downplayed these claims, but North Korea once again asserted the success of development by citing the hypersonic missile launch as the greatest achievement in the defense sector in January.

Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies stated, "It is characteristic that they emphasize completing the development of hypersonic missiles, the most core project among the five strategic weapon tasks, calling it 'our style Juche weapon,' placing it on the same level as nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and stressing it as a firm means of regime defense," adding, "This reconfirms that missile development is a major means for internal regime consolidation."

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