North Korea successfully tested a solid-fuel engine for its new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile,🌜 state media reportedಞ Wednesday, claiming a progress in efforts to develop a more powerful, agile missile designed to strike faraway US targets in the region.
A hypersonic missile is among an arr🅰ay of high-tech weapons systems that North Korean leade♒r Kim Jong Un publicly vowed to introduce in 2021 to cope with what he called deepening US hostility. Outside experts say Kim wants a modernized weapons arsenal to wrest US concessions like sanctions relief when diplomacy resumes.
On Tuesday, Kim gui♛ded the ground jet test of multi-stage solid-fuel engine🌱 for the hypersonic missile at the North's northwestern rocket launch facility, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
It cited Kim as saying the strategic value ꧑of the new missile with an intermediate-rang꧋e is as important as intercontinental ballistic missiles targeting the US mainland and that "enemies know better about it". It said that a timetable for completing the development of the new weapons system was "set through the great success in the important test".
Intermediate-range missiles possessed or pursued by North Korea are the weapons systems primarily aimed at attacking the US Pacific territory of Guam, home to US military ba🔴ses. With a range adjustment, missiles can be used to strike closer targets like US military installations in Japan's Okinawa island, experts say.
In recent years, North Korea has been pushing to develop m𝔉ore weapons with built-in solid propellants, which make launches harder to detect than liquid-propellant missiles that must be fuelled before liftoffs and cannot last 🍬long. The North's pursuit of hypersonic weapons is also meant to defeat US and South Korean missile defence systems, but it's unclear the North's hypersonic vehicles consistently maintained a desired speed exceeding Mach 5 during tests in 2021 and 2022, experts say.
I♎n January, North Korea said it flight-tested a new solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead, in an apparent reference to t🐼he missile mentioned in Wednesday's KCNA dispatch. In November, North Korea said it had tested engine tests for the missile.
On Mo🔯nday, South Korea, the US and Japan said they detected the multiple ballistic missile test-launches byꦓ North Korea in what was the country's first missile firings in about a month. The North said Tuesday it performed a live-fire drill of what it called nuclear-capable "super-large" multiple rocket launchers designed to target South Korea's capital, Seoul. South Korea's military later said it views the North Korean weapons system tested as a ballistic missile.
North Korea has been engaging in a provocative run of missile tests since 𒊎2022. The UಌS and South Korea militaries have responded by expanding their bilateral exercises and trilateral drills involving Japan. Observers say North Korea will likely intensify its run of missile tests ahead of the US presidential election in November.
