North Korea has reported this Tuesday that the projectile it fired on Monday was a new type of intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile whose launch the leader, Kim Jong-un, advised, indicating that the weapon seeks to “cope with different security threats.” ” that the country faces.
The hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) that was equipped on the head of the missile traveled a total of 1,500 kilometers at a speed 12 times the speed of sound before hitting the simulated target in the sea, according to the state news agency KCNA on Tuesday. .
The South Korean army detailed the day before that the missile was launched from the vicinity of Pyongyang and that it flew about 1,100 kilometers before falling into the waters of the Sea of Japan (called the East Sea in the two Koreas).
HGVs have the ability to plan and trace irregular trajectories that greatly complicate the work of anti-missile defense shields.
Seoul talks about “deception”
In any case, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) stated this Tuesday that “the North Korean assertion about the second peak height is most likely a hoax.”
“The flight range analyzed by South Korea, the United States and Japan is around 1,100 kilometers and (the missile) did not reach a second zenith,” JCS spokesperson Lee Sung-jun explained at a press conference.
From the photos published by North Korean media, the missile appears very similar to the Hwasong-16B, a medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile that runs on solid fuel tested by the regime last April, although according to KCNA in this case “a new carbon fiber composite” to manufacture the engine body and the projectile also uses a “new flight control and guidance system.”
Asked about the possibility that these innovations included in the design correspond to technological transfers by Russia in exchange for sending weapons and troops to support the invasion of Ukraine, the spokesperson for the South Korean JCS considers that this is a possibility that should not be ruled out. .
This “new strategic weapons system” is integrated into “the plan for the development of national defense capabilities in order to increase the durability and effectiveness of strategic deterrence against potential rivals in accordance with the changing regional security environment,” says the KCNA article.
Monitoring from a control room
Kim Jong-un witnessed the test on several monitors in a control room in the company of his daughter, whose name is believed to be Kim Ju-ae, and was satisfied with the result, saying that such a weapon can “cope with the different security threats that hostile forces currently pose to our country”, in reference to the US, South Korea and Japan.
According to the North Korean leader, this “hypersonic missile system will reliably deter any adversary in the Pacific region that could compromise national security.”
“There are only a few countries in the world that have weapons systems like this,” Kim said, indicating that this development is “for self-defense” and not part of an offensive plan.
The marshal considered that this weapon will serve “as the central axis of strategic deterrence”, that it will be “a means that will change the panorama of the battlefield” and that its “performance cannot be ignored on a global level, since it can effectively penetrate any solid defense barrier and deal a serious military blow to the opponent.”
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