If Pyongyang is indeed working on a hypersonic weapon that ‘slides’ towards a target at a speed of about six thousand kilometers per hour, that will be a major technological advance. Since North Korea surprised the world over the past quarter of a century with the development of nuclear weapons and a long-range missile that can reach the US, Pyongyang’s weapons claims are no longer taken with a grain of salt.
threatening
The US consulted with South Korea and Japan about North Korea’s claim. “We take reports of any new weapons capability seriously,” said a US State Department spokesman. US envoy to North Korea, Sung Kim, called such a test “destabilizing” and a threat to the region.
South Korea’s military leaders reacted more cautiously. According to Seoul, the new missile is still under development and it will take “considerable time” before North Korea is able to have a hypersonic weapon operational.
In particular, the US and Russia have been trying for years to be the first to add a hypersonic weapon to their arsenal. With this new generation of low-flying weapons, a military target in any part of the world can be destroyed in a short time. Because of the speed, at least five times the speed of sound, and maneuverability, hypersonic weapons would be more difficult to destroy by anti-missile systems.
US missile shield
Should North Korea make rapid progress with the weapon, it could threaten the missile defense shield the US has built to protect the US mainland. Part of this shield are interceptor missiles in Alaska and California intended to destroy North Korean missiles.
Pyongyang has had a long-range missile, the Hwasong-15, which can reach all of America since 2017. The successful test of this missile then surprised Washington. The US assumes that North Korea can equip the missile with a nuclear warhead.
The new North Korean test comes after Pyongyang has already shown progress with other weapons in recent weeks. For example, it said it had tested a cruise missile with a range of about 1,500 kilometers. North Korea first published a photo of the missile that looks suspiciously like the US Tomahawk, the most widely used cruise missile in the world. It also released a video of the launch of a rocket fired from a train. The ‘train option’ should make the hefty North Korean missile arsenal more mobile and less vulnerable to destruction.
Weapon Race
North Korea called the test of the hypersonic weapon “of great strategic importance”. According to the state news agency KCNA, the test was successful and important questions, such as about the stability of the engine, were answered.
In January, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un revealed that Pyongyang was working on a hypersonic weapon. He called the advanced weapons system one of the top five military priorities. Kim has been present at the tests of important new weapons in recent years, but he was not there on Tuesday when the missile was believed to be launched. The reason is unclear.
If North Korea has indeed tested a hypersonic weapon, it will join the arms race to quickly develop such a system. The US, which is working on several hypersonic weapons, last week tested a weapon that flew five times faster than the speed of sound. It should lead to a hypersonic cruise missile.
Russia in particular claims to have made significant progress in recent years. President Putin announced in 2018 the arrival of hypersonic weapons in the fight against the US missile defense system. He also threatened to station them on ships. In July, Moscow claimed to have successfully tested a hypersonic cruise missile. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the cruise missile, the Tsirkon, was fired from the naval vessel Admiral Gorshkov and has a speed of seven times the speed of sound, about 8,300 kilometers per hour.
Russia also has the Avangard, a hypersonic weapon that is carried by an intercontinental missile. Moscow claims that the weapon has been operational since 2019 and has a speed of more than twenty times the speed of sound. However, the Avangard’s capabilities and operational status have not been confirmed by independent sources.
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