North Korea has tested a new solid-fuel missile fitted with a hyper-sonic warhead. It continued efforts to develop more powerful, harder-to-detect weaponry.
The launch took place on Sunday afternoon.It came as Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui headed to Moscow, amid concerns in the United States and elsewhere. Pyongyang was selling weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine in return for Russian technological expertise.
Reports say that the launch was designed to test the reliability of new multi-stage, high-thrust solid-fuel engines and an intermediate-range hyper-sonic manoeuvrable controlled warhead.
They added:” The test-firing never affected the security of any neighbouring country and had nothing to do with the regional situation”.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement : “The missile flew towards the East Sea, travelling approximately 621 miles.” Authorities in Seoul, Washington, DC and Tokyo were analysing the specifications. Japan’s Defence Ministry said its maximum altitude was at least 30 miles.
North Korea’s last missile test was of a Hwasong-18 solid fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which it fired into the East Sea on December 18,2023.
It previously tested new solid-fuel engines for an intermediate ballistic missile on November 11 and November 14 of 2023.
Leader Kim Jong Un last week branded Seoul his “principal enemy” and warned he would not hesitate to annihilate South Korea.
Kim was reported as saying “The historic time has come at last when we should define as a state most hostile toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea the entity called the Republic of Korea [South Korea].” “Even a little spark can be a catalyst for enormous physical conflicts between the two most hostile countries,” he added.
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