(Seoul) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the test of a new medium-to-long-range solid-fueled hypersonic missile, state news agency KCNA said Wednesday, praising the “significant military strategic value » of the new weapon.
A video broadcast by KCNA shows the missile being placed on its launch vehicle, as Kim Jong-un and a group of uniformed soldiers look on, before the missile takes off, leaving behind a plume of smoke and flames.
The North has thus developed “another powerful offensive strategic weapon” and achieved its objective of acquiring missiles “of different ranges, solid fuel, controlled warhead and nuclear warhead”, declared Mr. Kim, quoted by the agency.
The test, carried out early Tuesday, focused on a “new type of intermediate-range solid propellant ballistic missile”, named Hwasongpho-16B and “loaded with a hypersonic warhead”, detailed KCNA.
Kim Jong personally gave the order to launch the device from the command post, the agency added.
The South Korean military said the missile traveled about 600 kilometers before crashing into the waters between South Korea and Japan.
KCNA for its part affirmed that it traveled around 1,000 kilometers and “did not have a negative effect on the security of neighboring countries”.
“Serious threat to security”
This launch comes less than two weeks after the announcement that Kim Jong-un had overseen the test of a solid fuel engine for a “new type of intermediate-range hypersonic missile”.
North Korea has long sought to master more advanced hypersonic and solid-fuel technologies to make its missiles more capable of neutralizing South Korean and U.S. missile defense systems as well as threatening bases. American regional military.
Hypersonic missiles travel at a speed of at least Mach 5, or more than 6,000 km/h. They are capable of adopting a random trajectory in mid-flight, making them more difficult to intercept. They can carry conventional or nuclear warheads.
The use of solid fuel eliminates the need for refueling before launch, which makes their deployment faster and consequently reduces the possibilities of interception.
According to Hong Min, senior analyst at the South Korean Institute for National Unification, this technology is likely to further compromise regional security.
“With its enhanced and unpredictable maneuverability, it poses a serious security threat” as it risks compromising “South Korea’s missile interception,” he said.
This expert estimated that the effective range of the Hwasongpho-16B was probably in the order of “3,000 kilometers”.
If this is the case, this “would give Pyongyang a great deterrent against American aircraft carriers deployed in the region as well as against American bases on Guam” in the Pacific, he noted.
Pyongyang has been subject to a series of sanctions since its second nuclear test in 2009, but has nevertheless continued to develop its nuclear and weapons programs.
In early 2024, North Korea designated Seoul its “main enemy”, closed agencies dedicated to inter-Korean dialogue and threatened war for any violation of its territory “even by 0.001 millimeter”.
In March, the United States and South Korea held one of their major annual joint military exercises, drawing the ire of Pyongyang, which systematically accuses the exercises of being rehearsals for an invasion.
On Tuesday, after the launch, South Korea’s Defense Ministry announced it had conducted a joint air exercise with Washington and Tokyo, involving a nuclear-capable B-52H bomber and F-15K fighter jets.