North Korea on Tuesday confirmed its test-firing of a new intermediate-range ballistic missile fitted with a hypersonic warhead, a day after the Kim Jong-un regime fired the weapon in a first act of provocation this year, before the launch later this month of the second Donald Trump administration in the US.
The missile firing was supervised by the North Korean leader himself, with the new missile purportedly flying 1,500 kilometers on an estimated trajectory at 12 times the speed of sound, according to the Korean Central News Agency. The agency said the IRBM was manufactured with a new carbon fiber compound and reached a first peak at a height of 99.8 kilometers and a second at 42.5 kilometers.
It confirmed the South Korean military's detection of a missile fired by the communist regime on Monday, which was suspected to be a hypersonic IRBM that flew about 1,100 kilometers before falling into the East Sea.
The missile's flight range was well short of the usual 3,000- to 5,500-kilometer range of standard IRBMs, although the military assessed that the missile hit its target. The KCNA said the missile hit exactly the intended spot on the ocean, leading to speculations that the hermit kingdom had intentionally adjusted the range of the weapon.
Kim said the purpose of the missile development is to boost the country's nuclear war deterrence with a "weapon system that no one else could respond to." "(The new weapon system) will reliantly deter any enemies in the Pacific region that could affect the safety of the state," he was quoted as saying by the KCNA.
The apparent show of force comes amid political turmoil in South Korea with President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment trial and criminal investigation, stemming from Yoon's controversial declaration of martial law on Dec. 3 and his subsequent allegedly illegal orders to military commanders. North Korean media outlets last week depicted the current state of South Korea as "politically paralyzed and socially chaotic.”
The missile launch also took place two weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20 for his second nonconsecutive term as leader of the country.
Pyongyang’s latest launch would mark the furthest distance covered by a North Korean hypersonic missile, if the North's claims of it going 1,500 kilometers are true. Theoretically, it has the potential to strike US military bases in Guam -- some 3,400 kilometers from Pyongyang -- if fired at full range.
North Korea has claimed to be able to strike the US mainland with its nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, although authenticity of its claims have not been verified. It has boasted of its strike capacities with shorter range missiles that could strike Guam, namely by firing an IRBM in 2017 over a distance of 3,700 kilometers over Japan and into waters off Hokkaido.
If Pyongyang’s claims on the capacity of the new missile prove true, it could spell trouble, as hypersonic missiles are usually more difficult to intercept than conventional ballistic missiles with existing missile defense systems, as they fly at least five times the speed of sound.
US Air Force Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, since retired, said in 2023 testimony to the US Senate that hypersonic weapons are "extremely difficult to detect and counter given the weapons' speed and maneuverability, low flight paths and unpredictable trajectories."
