SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean state media stated on Wednesday that the nation has carried out a profitable test of a hypersonic missile, state media reported, with leader Kim Jong Un attending the launch for the primary time in additional than a yr.
On Tuesday authorities in South Korea and Japan detected the suspected launch, which drew condemnation by authorities in Washington and Tokyo and prompted an expression of concern from the U.N. secretary-general.
It was the second test in lower than per week, underscoring Kim’s New Year’s vow to bolster the army with cutting-edge expertise at a time when talks with South Korea and the United States have stalled.
“The test-fire was aimed on the closing verification of general technical specs of the developed hypersonic weapon system,” state information company KCNA reported.
After its launch from the rocket booster, a hypersonic glide automobile made a 600-km “glide soar flight” after which a 240- km “sea in waters” 1,000 km away, the report stated.
“The superior maneuverability of the hypersonic glide automobile was extra strikingly verified by means of the ultimate test-fire,” KCNA stated.
Kim urged army scientists to “additional speed up the efforts to steadily construct up the nation’s strategic army muscle each in high quality and amount and additional modernize the military,” KCNA added.
It was the primary time since early 2020 that Kim had formally attended a missile test.
“His presence right here would counsel explicit consideration on this programme,” Ankit Panda, a senior fellow on the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, posted on Twitter.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis)
