SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a successful test of a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile (IRBM) on Monday (Jan 6), state media KCNA said on Tuesday, pledging to accelerate the country's nuclear and missile capabilities.
It was North Korea's first missile launch since Nov 5, and coincided with a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to South Korea, where he pledged bilateral and trilateral co-operation including Japan to respond to Pyongyang's growing military threats.
The test occurred less than two weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump, who held unprecedented summits with Kim during his first term and has touted their personal rapport, returns to office.
The missile was fired on the outskirts of Pyongyang and flew some 1,500 km at 12 times the speed of sound and reached the maximum altitude of nearly 100 km before accurately landing at a target off the east coast, KCNA said.
New carbon fibre composite materials were used in the missile's engine, and it could "effectively penetrate any dense defence barrier and inflict a serious military blow on the opponent," it said.
Kim hailed the missile as a powerful weapon to cope with security threats posed by hostile forces and the changing regional security environment.
"The development of new-type hypersonic missile is mainly aimed to steadily put the country's nuclear war deterrent on an advanced basis by making the means of changing the war situation, the weapon system to which no one can respond, the linchpin of strategic deterrence," he said, according to KCNA.
South Korea's military said on Monday a suspected IRBM travelled more than 1,100 kilometres eastwards before falling into the sea.
Blinken condemned the latest launch together with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, and also warned of Pyongyang's deepening ties with Moscow, including illicit co-operation on space and satellite technology.
North Korea has been developing a new solid-fuel hypersonic IRBM amid an intensifying race for the next generation of long-range rockets that are difficult to track and intercept.
Last year's tests featured a new solid-fuel design and carried what Pyongyang said was a hypersonic glide vehicle, a warhead designed to be able to manoeuvre and evade missile defences.
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