North Korea announced on the 11th that it had succeeded in the final test of a hypersonic missile in the presence of General Secretary Kim Jong-un.
The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Workers' Party of Korea, said that the final test-fire of a hypersonic missile was conducted at the National Defense Science Academy yesterday, and explained that the purpose of this launch was to "finally confirm the overall technical characteristics."
The newspaper claimed, "The hypersonic glide combat unit separated from the missile made a gliding re-jump from the 600 km line," and "it made a strong turning maneuver 240 km from the initial launch azimuth to the target azimuth, and hit a target in the waters of 1,000 km."
A hypersonic missile is a weapon system that combines the advantages of ballistic and cruise missiles in the form of a warhead that reaches its peak and descends like a ballistic missile and then flies along the surface like a cruise missile.
According to North Korea's claim, the aircraft was separated 600 km after launch, and after that, it performed anomalous maneuvers to evade the interceptor missile for about 240 km.
The newspaper asserted that "the superior maneuverability of the glide combat unit has been more clearly confirmed."
Looking at the published photos, the warhead shape is close to a cone shape, so it seems that the same model was shot as it was launched on the 5th.
North Korea announced that it had test-fired two hypersonic missiles in September of last year and on the 5th of last year, but it was analyzed that they were different models in appearance.
Unlike the previous two test launches, this time Secretary General Kim personally observed and took commemorative photos with technicians.
The Rodong Sinmun reported that Kim achieved great success in the field of hypersonic weapon development, which has the most important strategic significance among the five core tasks of the five-year plan for national defense presented by the 8th party congress (last year). He said that he expressed special thanks to the technicians, etc.
General Secretary Kim said that "the struggle to improve the modernity of the military should be further spurred," and "the country's war deterrence power must be remarkably strengthened."
The newspaper said that General Secretary Kim later called the developers to the party's Central Committee headquarters to congratulate them and then took a commemorative photo.
It is noteworthy whether the hypersonic missile will be deployed in the near future, as North Korea defined this launch as a final test launch and Secretary-General Kim personally observed and took a commemorative photo.
North Korea fired a missile from the Jagang-do area into the East Sea around 7:27 am yesterday, and it was detected that the flight range was more than 700 km, the maximum altitude was 60 km, and the maximum speed was around Mach 10.
Immediately after the launch on the 5th, the Joint Chiefs of Staff devalued it as a "general ballistic missile", but this time evaluated it as more advanced than at the time.
(Photo=Pyongyang Chosun Central News Agency, Yonhap News)