State media said North Korea launched the Hwasong-18, a solid-fuel ICBM, on Friday to “radically promote” its nuclear retaliation capabilities.
Kim Jong Un led the test and threatened it would “experience a clearer security crisis, and constantly strike extreme uneasiness and horror into them by taking fatal and offensive counter-actions until they abandon their senseless thinking and reckless acts.”
North Korea has increased missile testing and criticized recent U.S.-South Korean military drills as heightening tensions.
South Korea’s defense ministry said North Korea was still developing the weapon and required more time and effort to perfect the technology, suggesting additional tests.
KCNA revealed images of Kim, his wife, sister, and daughter witnessing the launch with a camouflaged missile on a mobile launcher.
“The development of the new-type ICBM Hwasongpho-18 will extensively reform the strategic deterrence components of the DPRK, radically promote the effectiveness of its nuclear counterattack posture and bring about a change in the practicality of its offensive military strategy,” KCNA said, using its official name.
“Artillery” is “Pho” in Korean.
The North’s first intermediate-range or intercontinental ballistic missile with solid fuels, analysts claimed.
North Korea has long sought to develop a solid-fuel ICBM to speed up missile deployment during wartime.
Most of the nation’s biggest ballistic missiles use liquid fuel, which requires them to be filled with propellant upon launch.
“For any country that operates large-scale, missile-based nuclear forces, solid-propellant missiles are incredibly desirable capability because they don’t need to be fuelled immediately prior to use,” said Carnegie Endowment for International Peace senior scholar Ankit Panda. “These capabilities are more crisis-responsive.”
Panda said North Korea would likely preserve certain liquid-fuel systems, complicating U.S. and allied war calculations.
Solid-fuel missiles are easier to operate, safer, and require less logistical support than liquids, making them harder to detect and more survivable.
After testing a high-thrust solid-fuel engine in December, North Korea showed a new solid-fuel ICBM in February.
Analysts suggested early warning satellites may distinguish between solid- and liquid-fueled launches.
Kim called for a “more practical and offensive” war deterrent to confront U.S. aggression days before the launch.
Officials claimed the missile, launched near Pyongyang, traveled 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) before landing in waters east of North Korea. North Korea denied the test threatened its neighbors.
A South Korean military official claimed the missile’s greatest altitude was lower than 6,000 kilometers, the height of last year’s record-breaking tests.
“North Korea could have opted to focus on collecting data necessary to check its features at different stages than going full speed at the first launch,” said University of North Korean Studies professor Kim Dong-yup. “As it was a test that did not demonstrate its normal flight pattern, North Korea will likely conduct some more tests.”
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