North Korea says it tested hypersonic missile
| 1
North Korea has successfully tested a hypersonic missile, state media reported Thursday, in
the first major weapons test by the nuclear-armed nation this year.
This was the second reported test of what Pyongyang claimed were hypersonic gliding
missiles, as it pursues the sophisticated technology despite international sanctions and
condemnation.
Hypersonic missiles move far faster and are more agile than standard ones, making them
much harder for missile defence systems — on which the United States is spending billions
— to intercept.
The missile fired on Wednesday carried a “hypersonic gliding warhead” that “precisely hit a
target 700 km away”, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, without
identifying the launcher.
The warhead also demonstrated a “new” capability, moving 120 km laterally after it
detached from the launcher to strike the target, it added.
“The successive successes in the test launches in the hypersonic missile sector have
strategic significance,” KCNA said.
Hypersonic missiles were listed among the “top priority” tasks for strategic weapons in
North Korea’s current five-year plan, and it announced its first test — of the Hwasong-8 —
in September last year.
The Wednesday launch also tested the “fuel ampoule system under winter weather
conditions”, according to KCNA.
An ampoule system involves a propellant canister attached to the missile when it is
manufactured, and could eliminate the need for fuelling it at the launch site.
This offers an advantage over ordinary liquid-fuelled missiles, which have to be loaded with
propellant on-site just before launch — a time-consuming process that gives an enemy
ample opportunity to locate and destroy them.
Growing arsenal
Depending on their design, hypersonic missiles can carry conventional and nuclear
warheads, and have the potential to alter the strategic balance. They are generally defined
as travelling more than five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5.
