SEOUL, SOUTH KOREAN REPUBLIC — North Korea successfully tested a “hypersonic missile” this week, according to state news agency KCNA, the country’s second such test as it explores new military capabilities despite delayed disarmament negotiations.
The launch on Wednesday was North Korea’s first since October, and it was detected by numerous military forces in the region, eliciting condemnation from the US, South Korea, and Japan.
In September, North Korea conducted its first hypersonic missile test, entering a race amongst major military nations to adopt the new weapons technology.
Hypersonic weapons, which may reach speeds of more than five times the speed of sound — or around 6,200 kilometers per hour — normally fly toward targets at lower altitudes than ballistic missiles (3,850 mph).
Despite its name, researchers argue the major attribute of hypersonic weapons is their agility, rather than their speed, which may occasionally be equaled or exceeded by standard ballistic missile warheads.
The “hypersonic gliding warhead” split from its rocket booster and traveled 120 kilometers (75 miles) laterally before “precisely hitting” a target 700 kilometers (430 miles) distant in Wednesday’s test, according to KCNA. According to KCNA, the missile displayed “multistep glide jump flight and strong lateral maneuvering.”
According to KCNA, the test also validated components such as flight control and the aircraft’s capacity to fly in the winter. According to the KCNA article, “successful test launches in the hypersonic missile sector have strategic significance in that they hasten a task for modernizing the state’s strategic armed force.”
While North Korea has not tested nuclear weapons or long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) since 2017, researchers say it has developed and launched a range of more agile missiles and warheads in recent years, possibly to defeat missile defenses used by South Korea and the US.
“My impression is that the North Koreans have identified hypersonic gliders as a potentially useful qualitative means of dealing with missile defense,” Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the United States, said.
Hypersonic weapons are the next generation of weapons designed to eliminate enemies’ response time and traditional defeat methods.
Last month, the US finished construction of a gigantic $1.5 billion long-range radar in Alaska for a homeland missile defense system that can detect ballistic missiles as well as hypersonic weapons from nations like North Korea, according to the US.
Photos of the missile used in Wednesday’s test show a liquid-fueled ballistic missile with a conical-shaped Maneuverable Re-entry Vehicle (MaRV) blasting out in a cloud of flame and smoke from a wheeled launch vehicle, according to experts.
It’s a different variant of the weapon tested last year, and it was initially shown off during a Pyongyang defense showcase in October, according to Panda.
The administration of US President Joe Biden has stated that it is willing to talk to North Korea, but Pyongyang has dismissed such statements as mere rhetoric until more meaningful adjustments are made to “hostile policies” such as military drills and sanctions.
The latest test came just hours before South Korean President Moon Jae-in attended a ground-breaking ceremony for a rail line that he hopes will one day link the divided Korean peninsula, casting doubt on his hopes for a last-minute diplomatic breakthrough with North Korea before his five-year term ends in May.