North Korea has claimed it fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead which \u201cwill reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region\u201d.<\/p>\n
The launch on Monday \u2013 Pyongyang\u2019s first in two months \u2013 came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Seoul for talks with some of South Korea\u2019s key leaders.<\/p>\n
Hypersonic weapons are more difficult to track and shoot down, as they are able to travel at more than five times the speed of sound.<\/p>\n
North Korea is claiming their missile flew 12 times the speed of sound, for about 1,500km.<\/p>\n
South Korea\u2019s military earlier said the missile flew 1,100km before falling into the sea, adding that it \u201cstrongly condemns\u201d this \u201cclear act of provocation\u201d.<\/p>\n
North Korea has previously test-fired hypersonic missiles. Pictures published by KCNA showed that Monday\u2019s missile resembled one that was launched in April last year.<\/p>\n
But Pyongyang claims its new hypersonic missile features a new \u201cflight and guidance control system\u201d and a new engine made of carbon fibre.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s leader Kim Jong Un said Monday\u2019s launch \u201cclearly showed the rivals what we are doing and that we are fully ready to use even any means to defend our legitimate interests\u201d, state news agency KCNA said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Ankit Panda, a nuclear weapons specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the launch of a new weapon is \u201cunsurprising\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve known that North Korea has been working with composite materials for use in missiles for a number of years now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe appeal of these materials is to broadly improve the performance and reliability of the payload\u2026 Better materials can increase the odds of their survival to the target,\u201d he told the BBC.<\/p>\n
While hypersonic weaponry has existed for decades, in recent years new missiles have been developed that are much more agile, can re-enter the atmosphere much quicker and conduct evasive manoeuvres,\u00a0according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation.<\/p>\n
Hypersonic missiles can be detected by space-based sensors. Various reports suggest there is existing technology that can intercept hypersonic missiles despite their unpredictable trajectories. These are most likely to be deployed at the final phase of their flight, where they would be flying at a lower speed after a long flight through the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
While in Seoul on Monday, Blinken had said the US believes Russia plans to share advanced space and satellite technology with North Korea.<\/p>\n
He added that Moscow \u201cmay be close to reversing\u201d its decades-long commitment to denuclearising the Korean peninsula by recognising Pyongyang as a nuclear power.<\/p>\n
During his visit, the US Secretary of State met South Korea\u2019s acting president Choi Sang-mok, where he described the alliance between Washington and Seoul as a \u201ccornerstone of peace and stability on the Korean peninsula\u201d.<\/p>\n
South Korea\u2019s military said it has strengthened surveillance for the North\u2019s future missile launches and is \u201cclosely sharing information\u201d on the launch with the US and Japan.<\/p>\n
The launch took place amid political chaos in South Korea, which has embroiled the country for weeks after suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol\u2019s\u00a0short-lived martial law attempt\u00a0in December.<\/p>\n
Yoon, who was stripped of his presidential powers after lawmakers voted to impeach him, now faces arrest. The constitutional court is also deliberating whether he should be removed from office.<\/p>\n
Pyongyang previously mocked Yoon\u2019s shock martial law declaration as\u00a0an \u201cinsane act\u201d\u00a0and, with no suggestion of irony, accused Yoon of \u201cbrazenly brandishing blades and guns of fascist dictatorship at his own people\u201d.<\/p>\n
North Korea is widely regarded as one of the world\u2019s most repressive totalitarian states. Its leader Kim Jong Un and his family have ruled the hermit nation for decades as a dictatorial dynasty, developing and promoting a cult of personality.<\/p>\n
The last time Pyongyang fired missiles was in November, a day before the US presidential election, when it launched at least seven short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast.<\/p>\n
Earlier that week, the US had flown a long-range bomber during trilateral military drills with South Korea and Japan in a show of power, drawing condemnation from Kim\u2019s sister Kim Yo Jong.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
North Korea has claimed it fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead which \u201cwill reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region\u201d. The launch on Monday \u2013 Pyongyang\u2019s first in two months \u2013 came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Seoul for talks with some of South Korea\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}