North Korea Successfully Tests New Hypersonic Missile... Kim Jong-un Calls It "A Decade of Defense Research Fruit"

Launched from Pyongyang outskirts, flies 1000 km
Kim Jong-un "Remarkable achievement... extraordinary event"
Hypersonic warhead irregular, difficult to intercept

[Image source=Yonhap News]

North Korea announced on the 3rd that it successfully conducted a test launch of a new medium-to-long-range solid-fuel hypersonic ballistic missile.

On the same day, the Korean Central News Agency reported that Chairman Kim Jong-un personally supervised the first test launch of the newly developed medium-to-long-range solid ballistic missile "Hwaseongpho-16na" equipped with a new hypersonic glide vehicle the previous day.

The agency explained, "The test launch aimed to confirm the overall design and technical characteristics of the new medium-to-long-range hypersonic missile and to verify the reliability of the weapon system."

It added, "The first test launch of this new weapon system was conducted with safety in mind by limiting the range to within 1000 km, employing a two-stage engine ignition delay, and forcibly restricting speed and altitude through abrupt trajectory changes during the active phase, thereby confirming the glide-leap flight trajectory characteristics and lateral maneuvering capability of the hypersonic glide vehicle."

According to the agency, the hypersonic glide vehicle separated from the missile launched from the outskirts of Pyongyang toward the northeast followed the planned flight path, reaching a first peak altitude of 101.1 km and a second peak altitude of 72.3 km before landing in the East Sea 1000 km away.

Earlier, the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that a medium-range ballistic missile launched from the Pyongyang area toward the East Sea flew about 600 km before landing in the East Sea.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The agency stated, "Chairman Kim expressed great satisfaction with the test launch results and highly praised the efforts of the officials, scientists, and technicians in the defense science sector."

Kim emphasized, "Another powerful strategic offensive weapon demonstrating the absolute superiority of our defense science and technology has been born. With this, we have perfectly realized the solid-fuelization, warhead control, and nuclear armament of all tactical, operational, and strategic missiles of various ranges, thereby brilliantly implementing the three major principles of missile force construction?'rapidly, accurately, and powerfully'?against any enemy target within the global sphere."

In particular, Kim stated, "Today's remarkable achievement will bring a tremendous change in enhancing the nuclear war deterrence of our republic's armed forces. This is the noble fruit of nearly a decade of our defense science research struggle."

North Korea conducted a ground static test of a multi-stage solid-fuel engine for a medium-to-long-range hypersonic missile on the 19th of last month. The test launch the previous day appears to have been conducted by mounting a hypersonic weapon on this engine. Hypersonic missiles travel at speeds over five times the speed of sound, and their warhead descent trajectories are irregular, making interception difficult.

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