A North Korean missile test demonstrated a more advanced weapon than a test conducted roughly a week ago, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Tuesday’s missile test, which was launched from the Jangang province, near the border with China, supposedly reached a speed of Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound. The weapon flew approximately 700 kilometers before landing in waters off the country’s eastern coast.
North Korea claimed that the missile test last week was hypersonic, though South Korean and U.S. officials were skeptical. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby reiterated to reporters on Monday that U.S. officials “called it a ballistic missile. And we are still assessing the details of it.”
“We assess that this is more advanced than the missile North Korea fired on Jan. 5, though South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities are conducting detailed analysis,” South Korea’s JCS said.
“We are aware of the ballistic missile launch and are consulting closely with our allies and partners,” the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement. “While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies, the missile launch highlights the destabilizing impact of the DPRK’s illicit weapons program. The U.S. commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remains ironclad.”
The launch was a “clear violation” of the United Nations Security Council resolutions, they alleged.
North Korea has an apparent desire to join the U.S., China, and Russia in the hypersonic weapons arms race. Hypersonics, which are usually defined by reaching at least five times the speed of sound, fly closer to the Earth and are more maneuverable, adding to their success rate. These advancements to hypersonic technology make preventive actions more difficult.
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The Chinese military, which has also placed special emphasis on such military developments, tested a hypersonic missile over the summer that circled the globe before hitting its target. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned in November that their test demonstrated “extraordinary rates of speed that no defensive systems are capable of dealing with.”
