With South Korea stuck in a political crisis that seems impossible to escape, and on the verge of Donald Trump returning to the White House, North Korea has taken advantage of the situation to once again show off its military muscle after two months of inactivity and without provocation. As reported by North Korean state media this Tuesday, Pyongyang launched a new hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) the day before. The supreme leader of the most secretive nation on the planet, Kim Jong-un, supervised the test and indicated that this “strategic weapon” – which, he boasted, few countries in the world can dream of possessing – seeks to “cope with the different security threats” that the country faces “from hostile forces,” reports the KCNA agency.
During the year-end conclave of the Workers’ Party, Kim already stated that he will carry out the “strongest” neutralization strategy against the United States and criticized that the growing military cooperation of Washington, Seoul and Tokyo has become a ” military block for aggression.”
According to the North Korean version, the projectile reached its first peak altitude at 99.8 kilometers and a second at 42.5 kilometers. In total, it traveled 1,500 kilometers at a speed equivalent to twelve times the speed of sound before “accurately” hitting the simulated target on the high seas, KCNA attests. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff had reported the previous day that it was launched from near the North Korean capital and that it flew about 1,100 kilometers before falling into the waters of the Sea of Japan (known as the East Sea in both Koreas).
A spokesperson for the South Korean Army declared today in a press conference that “the North Korean assertion is probably a farce” and highlighted Pyongyang’s tendency to “exaggerate.” “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 peak altitude,” said Colonel Lee Sung-un, quoted by the South Korean Yonhap agency. However, Seoul plans to conduct a more thorough analysis with Washington, Reuters reports.
If it is confirmed that the missile was able to reach that second zenith, it would imply that it has the capacity to make adjustments to its flight, change its course and maintain (and even) gain altitude again, instead of following the typical descending trajectory of a ballistic missile, which is losing altitude continuously until you reach your goal. This would make it more difficult to intercept, as it would alter predictions about its route and could evade defense systems that are designed to detect missiles with predictable ballistic trajectories.
The North Korean leader emphasized after testing his new projectile that the development of this type of missile is intended to reinforce the country’s nuclear war deterrence. “The hypersonic missile system will stop any rival in the Pacific region that tries to attack the security of our State,” KCNA quotes. Likewise, he boasted of the “potential” of his “inexhaustible technical self-defense force” and the “speed” at which he is improving it. “We will make the improvement of weapons systems that no one can respond to the centerpiece of our strategic deterrence capabilities,” Kim warned.
North Korea had not carried out missile tests since November 5. Monday’s launch coincided with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s visit to Seoul and came just two weeks before Donald Trump’s inauguration. During his first term, the American magnate led an unprecedented rapprochement with Pyongyang: he held several historic meetings with Kim Jong-un in an attempt to reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula and negotiate its denuclearization. However, no substantial agreements were reached in any of the three summits attended by the two leaders.
Pyongyang has also claimed that it used “a new carbon fiber composite” to manufacture the engine body of the hypersonic missile and that a “comprehensive and effective” new method was used for the projectile’s flight control and guidance system. The country has been developing a new solid-fuel IRBM amid the growing race to obtain the next generation of long-range rockets, which are harder to track and intercept. Last April, it tested the Hwasong-16B, a medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile that runs on solid fuel and includes a warhead designed to maneuver and evade anti-missile defense systems.
Some experts cited by South Korean media noted that the new projectile appears to be an improved version of the Hwasong-16B. “As Pyongyang has asserted that it has acquired technology that ‘is not easy to obtain’, it could be its own technical improvement. But the possibility that it is due to cooperation with Russia cannot be excluded,” Hong Min, senior researcher at the Korean Institute for National Unification, warned Yonhap.
The growing affinity of Moscow and Pyongyang and the direct involvement of North Korea in the war in Ukraine are worrying from Europe to the Asia-Pacific region. In December, the new “strategic partnership agreement” that Kim and Putin signed in the summer came into force, which includes a “mutual defense in case of aggression” pact. The Kremlin is believed to be rewarding the North Korean regime with key ballistic and nuclear technology in exchange for its troops.
