South Korea’s SEOULNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un promised to increase his arsenal of nuclear-capable weapons to counter adversaries, and the country announced Tuesday that its most recent test was a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile intended to hit distant targets in the Pacific.
A day after South Korea’s military reported detecting North Korea shoot a missile that traveled 685 kilometers before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, North Korean official media reported the same thing. The launch followed a turbulent year of weapons testing and took place only weeks before Donald Trump takes office again.
As the two nations align over the conflict in Ukraine, there are worries that North Korea’s military capabilities could advance further through technology transfers from Russia. Last year, the North Koreans demonstrated a number of weapons systems that can target both the United States and its neighbors, including solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles.
In recent years, North Korea has conducted flight tests of a variety of intermediate-range missiles that, if refined, might reach Guam, a U.S. military base in the Pacific. To increase their durability, the North has been experimenting merging these missiles with alleged hypersonic warheads in recent months.
Since 2021, North Korea has been testing a range of hypersonic weapons that can travel faster than five times the speed of sound. These missiles’ agility and speed are designed to outmaneuver local missile defense systems. Uncertainty surrounds whether these missiles are actually traveling at the North’s stated speeds on a regular basis.
According to the North’s official media, Kim oversaw Monday’s launch. The missile went 932 miles, reaching two distinct peaks at 62 and 26.4 miles, reaching a speed equal to 12 times the speed of sound, before precisely hitting a maritime target.
According to South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff spokeswoman Lee Sung Joon, the South Korean military thinks North Korea was inflating the system’s capabilities by claiming the missile had no second peak and covered less ground.
It would be challenging to utilize such systems in a relatively compact territory like the Korean Peninsula, Lee said, adding that the test was probably a follow-up to another test of hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missiles conducted last April. He claimed the U.S. and South Korean forces were still examining the rocket.
According to the official Korean Central News Agency, Kim called the missile a significant step toward his objectives of strengthening the North’s nuclear deterrence by constructing an arsenal that no one can match.
According to the agency, Kim stated that the hypersonic missile system will consistently keep out any competitors in the Pacific that might jeopardize our state’s security.
Although Kim reaffirmed that his nuclear push was intended to tackle the various security challenges that the hostile forces posed to our state, KCNA made no mention of any direct criticism directed at Seoul, Tokyo, or Washington.
The launch occurred during Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s trip to Seoul to discuss the North Korean nuclear threat and other matters with South Korean allies.
Blinken denounced North Korea’s launch, which went against U.N. Security Council resolutions against the North’s weapons programs, during a press conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul on Monday. Concerns regarding North Korea and Russia’s increasing cooperation in Moscow’s war on Ukraine were also reaffirmed by him. He said that Russia has been giving the North military training and equipment and plans to share space and satellite technology, characterizing the military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow as a two-way street.
North Korea has committed around 10,000 personnel and conventional weapons equipment to bolster Moscow’s war effort, according to assessments from the United States, Ukraine, and South Korea. There are worries that Russia would give North Korea cutting-edge weaponry in exchange, which might make Kim’s nuclear-armed army even more dangerous.
Kim Jong Un denounced the Biden administration’s attempts to fortify security cooperation with Seoul and Tokyo, which he characterized as a nuclear military bloc for aggression, and pledged to enact the strictest anti-US policies at a year-end party summit.
Neither Kim’s policy goals nor any particular remarks regarding Trump were mentioned by North Korean state media. Trump met with Kim three times during his first term in office to discuss the North’s nuclear development.
Diplomacy with North Korea may not resume quickly, even if Trump returns to the White House. Experts say that fresh obstacles to ending the nuclear impasse are presented by Kim’s improved stance, which is based on his enlarged nuclear weapons, his growing relationship with Russia, and the waning enforcement of U.S. international sanctions.
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