North says it launched IRBM carrying hypersonic warhead

North Korea said Monday it successfully tested a solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) bearing a hypersonic warhead the previous day.

In this photo released on Monday by Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central News Agency, North Korea launches a solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile the previous day. [YONHAP]

North Korea said Monday it successfully tested a solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) bearing a hypersonic warhead the previous day.

According to Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the purpose of the missile test carried out on Sunday afternoon was to verify the gliding and maneuvering capabilities of a “hypersonic maneuverable controlled warhead” and the missile’s newly developed multi-stage high-thrust solid-fuel engines.

The regime’s Missile General Bureau, which conducted the test, said in the KCNA report that the launch was part of “regular activities for developing powerful weapon systems.”

The North also claimed the test “never affected the security of any neighboring country and had nothing to do with the regional situation.”

Sunday’s missile was the first to be launched by the North this year. The last launch conducted by the North was that of a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile on Dec. 18.

The launch was met with fresh condemnation from Kim Gunn, South Korea’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, as well as from his U.S. and Japanese counterparts Jung Pak and Hiroyuki Namazu during phone talks held by the trio on Sunday, according to Seoul’s Foreign Ministry on Monday.

Seoul’s Defense Ministry also issued a separate statement blasting the launch as a “clear provocation” that violates United Nations Security Council resolutions, which forbid Pyongyang from conducting launches that involve ballistic missile technology.

South Korean military officials believe the North Korean solid-fuel IRBM has a range of 3,000 to 5,000 kilometers (1,864 to 3,106 miles) and is capable of targeting U.S. military bases in Japan and Guam, located approximately 3,000 kilometers south of North Korea.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, which told reporters on Sunday that the missile flew 1,000 kilometers after being launched at 2:55 p.m. from an area near Pyongyang, only said via a spokesperson on Monday that a “comprehensive analysis” was still underway.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who threatened last week to “annihilate” South Korea in the event of an armed conflict, previously identified a hypersonic warhead as one of the key items on his wish list of advanced military assets at a meeting of the regime’s ruling Worker’s Party in 2021.

In November, the North’s state media reported that the regime had conducted successful ground-based tests of multi-stage solid-fuel engines to power a new type of intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).

Multi-stage missiles use two or more stages, each with its own engine and propellant, that are jettisoned when they run out of fuel, thereby decreasing the mass of the remaining missile. This process enables the thrust of the remaining stages to more easily accelerate the missile to its final speed and height.

Staging is used to both fire missiles across long distances and launch satellites into orbit.

The KCNA at the time said the tests “provided a sure guarantee for reliably accelerating the development of the new-type IRBM system.”

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.

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