North Korea says latest missile tests used hypersonic-linked weapons system

North Korea said its latest missile tests involved a significant new weapons system. The launches signal Pyongyang's push for military leverage despite renewed US diplomacy efforts.

In Short

• State media images suggested the missiles matched North Korea's Hwasong-11Ma design
• South Korea tracked two projectiles launched three hours apart from Wonsan
• The missiles travelled roughly 450 and 600 kilometres before splashing down

North Korea said on Tuesday that its latest missile tests involved a new weapons system of "great significance", with state media photos indicating that it launched a missile it had previously described as hypersonic. The tests came amid a recent run of military displays by Pyongyang as it continues to advance its weapons programme despite US calls to resume diplomacy.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who observed Sunday’s tests with his teenage daughter, said the weapon’s development would strengthen the country’s war readiness and give its enemies an "incurable headache", according to the official Korean Central News Agency. However, he did not specify what the weapon was.

South Korea’s military said North Korea fired two short-range missiles about three hours apart from the eastern coastal Wonsan area on Sunday. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles flew about 450 kilometres and 600 kilometres toward the sea, while Japan’s military said they landed in waters outside the country’s exclusive economic zone.

The launches followed other recent military activity by North Korea, including live-fire exercises and the commissioning of a new warship. Kim has continued to showcase the country’s growing nuclear programme even as Washington has sought to restart talks.

After years of intensified testing, North Korea now has a wide range of nuclear-capable missiles, including long-range weapons that could potentially reach the US mainland and shorter-range systems meant to overwhelm missile defences in South Korea and Japan.

Among the weapons North Korea has tested in recent years are missile systems fitted with what it says are hypersonic weapons, designed to travel at more than five times the speed of sound. Their speed and manoeuvrability are intended to help them evade regional missile defences, though some experts have questioned whether they have consistently reached the speeds claimed by North Korea during tests.

Photos released by KCNA from Sunday’s tests showed what appeared to be two missiles with conical, finned vehicles being launched from trucks. Kim was also seen looking at a monitoring screen that identified the missile as a Hwasong-11Ma, a system that North Korea has previously described as hypersonic.

The tests were the latest in a series of weapons demonstrations even after US President Donald Trump scaled back a joint military exercise with South Korea last month in what appeared to be an effort to revive diplomacy with Kim. North Korea has long called such drills "invasion rehearsals", and Kim’s sister and senior official Kim Yo Jong dismissed Trump’s move, saying that shortening the exercise would not change its "provocative, aggressive nature".

Experts say Kim, strengthened by his expanding nuclear arsenal and closer ties with Russia and China, is likely to believe he has more leverage in any renewed diplomacy with Trump. North Korea has said Washington must first end its "hostile policy" — a term Pyongyang mainly uses for US-led sanctions and joint US-South Korea military drills — and drop demands for denuclearisation as a condition for talks. Overall, the latest launches underlined North Korea’s continued push to develop advanced missile systems while keeping pressure on the US and its regional allies.

With PTI Inputs

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