On Tuesday, North Korea claimed to have effectively launched a new hypersonic missile known as the Hwasong-8. The missile was dubbed a “strategic weapon,” which normally means it carries nuclear weapons. The launch on Tuesday is another sign of Pyongyang’s increasing weaponry in the face of international sanctions.
- The new missile is one of the “five most important” new weapons systems framed in its five-year military-developed plan reported by State media.
- With this, the new test launch also remarked the countries number three missile in this same month. It has already shown off a new type of cruise missile and a train-launched ballistic missile system.
- According to AFP, hypersonic missiles are significantly faster and more agile than conventional missiles, making them far more difficult to intercept by missile defense systems.
- Ankit Panda, a Stanton Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said it was difficult to estimate the missile’s “precise capabilities” at this time, but that it may “provide a completely different challenge for missile defense than regular ballistic missiles.”
- Panda called the new weapon a “major milestone” since it saw North Korea introduce rocket fuel ampoule.
- As per the Korea Times, a rocket fuel ampoule would “decrease rocket dispatch planning time and prepare the weapon for arrangement nearly as fast as a strong fuel rocket, contrasted with customary rockets that require fuel infusion before dispatching.
- At a previous meeting in January, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stated that experts had “completed research” on building hypersonic glide weapons. The first test of the new system was held on Tuesday.
- North Korea’s latest missile launches suggest that it is intensifying its weapons development; this was the country’s third test in as many months. The drive to create a hypersonic glider isn’t surprising, considering Kim Jong Un hinted to it in January.
- Meanwhile, South Korea tested its first Submarine-launched ballistic missile. They made it as needed as they deterrence against north Koreas’ ‘provocations”.
North Korea has been urged by the United States to give up its nuclear weapons, and Pyongyang’s relationship with President Joe Biden’s administration has been tense thus far. Japan and North Korea have long-standing tensions stemming from Japan’s 35-year colonization of Korea, Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear and missile programs, and Pyongyang’s abduction of Japanese people in the past.
