SEOUL: North Korea said it successfully tested a new weapon featuring what it described as “ultra-modern defence technology,” with leader Kim Jong Un overseeing the launch, state media KCNA reported on Tuesday.
Kim said the Missile Administration conducted Sunday’s test and described it as significant progress in strengthening the armed forces’ combat capabilities and war readiness.
However, KCNA did not identify the weapon or provide detailed technical specifications. Kim said North Korea’s adversaries would understand the implications of the latest development, while warning that advances in Pyongyang’s military capabilities would increase pressure on them.
Images Point to Possible Upgraded Ballistic Missile
Photographs released by KCNA showed Kim, accompanied by his teenage daughter, inspecting a screen displaying North Korea’s east coast and what state media identified as the flight trajectory of a Hwasongpho-11-ma-1.
The weapon appears to belong to a series of short-range ballistic missiles that North Korea has been developing and upgrading.
Meanwhile, Seoul-based NK News assessed that the projectile appeared to be an upgraded missile variant equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle. Such vehicles can manoeuvre during flight, potentially complicating interception by missile defence systems.
South Korea’s military said North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles from its east coast on Sunday.
Regional Powers Discuss Korean Peninsula Security
The launch came days after Pyongyang accused the United States of increasing tensions on the Korean Peninsula through military exercises.
Furthermore, the foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and the United States met on Monday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
According to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, the three governments agreed to maintain close coordination on peace, stability and denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula as concerns continue over Pyongyang’s expanding missile and nuclear programmes.
