Kim Jong-un threatens continued 'offensive' after ICBM launch

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.”

The launch of a North Korean Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday is captured in this overhead photo released by Pyongyang’s 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 launched on Wednesday was a “long-range” projectile fired 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 on Thursday by Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un can be seen observing the launch of a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile the previous day. [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 a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel 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.

According to Kim Dong-yup, a professor of military and security affairs at the University of North Korean Studies, Wednesday’s Hwasong-18 ICBM launch demonstrates further advances in the North’s solid-fuel ballistic missile technology.

The flight trajectory of Wednesday’s missile 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,” Kim said.

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 threaten its territory.”

People Power Party leader Kim Gi-hyeon, left, is briefed on North Korea’s latest missile launch by White House National Security Council (NSC) officials in Washington on Wednesday (local time). Kurt Campbell, President Joe Biden’s NSC Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, sits opposite him at the center of the table. [PEOPLE POWER PARTY]

The White House National Security Council (NSC) responded to Wednesday’s launch with a statement condemning the North for flouting international law.

“This launch is a brazen violation of multiple [United Nations] Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region,” said NSC spokesman Adam Hodge, who added that the North’s actions show it “continues to prioritize its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs over the well-being of its people.”

The NSC spokesman also urged “all countries to condemn these violations” and called on Pyongyang to “immediately cease its destabilizing actions and instead choose diplomatic engagement,” while also vowing that the United States would “take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland” and its allies South Korea and Japan.

Under successive resolutions passed by the UN Security Council, the North is barred from conducting tests of ballistic missile technology.

But those resolutions and attendant sanctions have failed to stop the North from successfully developing several liquid-fuel ICBMs, including the Hwasong-15 and Hwasong-17, which can fly 13,000 kilometers and 15,000 kilometers, respectively.

Solid-fuel missiles such as the Hwasong-18 can remain in storage for an extended period, allowing them to be deployed and launched in a shorter time frame than liquid-fuel missiles.

Liquid-fuel missiles typically need several hours to be loaded with propellant before they can be launched, exposing them to detection and pre-emptive destruction.

It remains to be seen if the North will focus on building a mostly solid-fuel missile arsenal after its latest proclaimed success with launching the Hwasong-18.

In September 2021, when the North claimed it tested its first hypersonic missile, state media quoted a high-ranking military official as saying the regime could “turn all missile fuel systems into ampoules,” or liquid propellant and oxidizer tanks loaded and sealed inside the missiles during production.

This comment suggests North Korea “intends to continue to retain and improve its liquid-propellant ballistic missile force for the long term rather than shift to an all-solid force,” according to 38 North, an analysis group run by the Stimson Center.

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