North Korea says it fired latest Hwasong-18 ICBM

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the launch of a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Wednesday, vowing his regime would continue its “military offensive” until South Korea and the United States admit “defeat.”

A North Korean Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile is seen taking off in this photo released by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency on Thursday. [YONHAP]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the launch of a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Wednesday, vowing his regime would continue its “military offensive” until South Korea and the United States admit “defeat.”

State-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Thursday that Wednesday’s missile reached a peak altitude of 6,648.4 kilometers (4,131 miles) and flew 1,001.2 kilometers before it “correctly struck its target” in the East Sea.

The details of the KCNA’s report appeared to be consistent with an earlier assessment by South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff that the missile was a “long-range” projectile launched at a high angle.

According to the KCNA, Kim vowed that his regime would “continue to carry out an even stronger military offensive” until “the United States and the South Korean puppet traitors admit and accept the humiliating defeat of their useless policy” against the North.

In this photo released by the Korean Central News Agency, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, celebrates the launch of the Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

The KCNA also said the “new records set” by Wednesday’s test “proved the capabilities as well as the reliability and military utility of the new-type strategic weapons system” and “confirmed there is no room to doubt” the North’s “nuclear strategic forces.”

Wednesday’s launch marks only the second time that the North has fired the solid-fuel Hwasong-18 ICBM.

The first Hwasong-18 ICBM that was launched in April flew approximately 1,000 kilometers but peaked at a lower altitude of 3,000 kilometers, according to analysis conducted by the South Korean military.

Solid-fuel missiles can remain in storage for an extended period, allowing them to be deployed and launched in a shorter time frame than liquid-fuel missiles.

According to Kim Dong-yup, a professor of military and security affairs at the University of North Korean Studies, the latest Hwasong-18’s flight trajectory shows it can fly “at least 15,000 kilometers [on a regular trajectory] even if it’s mounted with a 1,000-kilogram [2,200-pound] warhead.”

He added that the KCNA report is the North’s way of putting out the message “that it has verified its own technology and development of a high-thrust solid-fuel rocket engine,” and that the United States now “faces a greater variety of ICBMs that pose a threat to its territory.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]