North Korea’s new solid-fuel hypersonic missile, launched on January 14th, is reported to have reached a near-maximum altitude of 100 km (approximately 62 miles) and a flight distance of 1,000 km (approximately 621 miles). /News1
Amid North Korea and Kim Jong Un’s ongoing verbal onslaught, there is growing interest in the latest test launch of a new solid-fuel hypersonic missile by North Korea. This will be discussed in this article.
◇ North Korea is developing two types of hypersonic missiles: stingray and cone-shaped.
North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun reported on the 15th that “a successful test launch of a medium-range solid fuel ballistic missile equipped with a hypersonic maneuvering warhead” was carried out on the 14th. However, the specific details of the test launch, such as the missile’s maximum altitude and flight distance, were not disclosed.
A hypersonic missile is an ultra-fast missile that flies at a speed exceeding five times the speed of sound (Mach 5). This is not the first time that North Korea has launched a hypersonic missile. There had been three previous launches between 2011 and 2022. The first launch took place on September 28th, 2021, with an estimated maximum altitude of 30 km (approximately 19 miles) and a flight distance of 500 km (approximately 311 miles). The hypersonic missile launched on January 11th, 2022, according to South Korean and Japanese analyses, had a maximum altitude of 60 km (approximately 37 miles) and a flight distance of 700 km (approximately 435 miles).
North Korea’s hypersonic missile, “Hwasong-8,” appeared in the military parade. It was equipped with a stingray-shaped warhead similar to China’s DF-17, which allows it to travel like a glider. It is known that the first test launch, which occurred in 2021, failed. /News1
On the other hand, North Korea announced that the flight distance was 1,000 km (approximately 621 miles). A few days earlier, the hypersonic missile launched on January 5th, 2022, recorded a maximum altitude of 50 km (approximately 31 miles) and a flight distance of 700 km (approximately 435 miles). Two types of North Korea’s publicly disclosed hypersonic missiles have been made public: the Hwasong-8, which has a stingray-shaped warhead, and the Hwasong-11 Na type, which has a cone-shaped warhead. The stingray type, which is similar to China’s DF-17, which is currently in active deployment, was only launched once in September 2021 and is believed to have failed.
◇ U.S. intelligence confirms a North Korean hypersonic missile flew 1,000 km.
Meanwhile, after launching the cone-shaped missile twice in 2022, North Korea declared a “complete success.” This time, solid fuel was used instead of liquid as the first-stage propellant. The strength of solid fuel is that it allows for immediate surprise launches, which also poses a threat because it makes it difficult for South Korea and the U.S. to respond.
So, in what way has North Korea’s most recent hypersonic missile advanced or evolved from its predecessor? The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that the missile launched this time had a flight distance of 1,000 km (approximately 621 miles), although they did not disclose information on the maximum altitude. However, Japan’s Ministry of Defense stated that the maximum altitude was 50 km (approximately 31 miles) and the flight distance was 500 km (approximately 311 miles), which is barely half of the Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff’s announcement.
The Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim Jong Un, the Chairman of the State Affairs Commission, oversaw the successful test launch of a hypersonic missile conducted by the North Korean National Defense Science Institute in January 2022. /Korean Central News Agency Yonhap News
Even though South Korea, the U.S., and Japan are sharing real-time intelligence on North Korean missile launches this year, this disparity has occurred. Japan assumed the shorter flight distance because the North Korean hypersonic missile flew at a low altitude with erratic movements and could not be detected beyond 500 km (about 311 miles). In reality, due to the curvature of the Earth, it is difficult to detect the latter half of the flight trajectory of the North Korean missile. So how do we find out it traveled more than 500 km (approximately 311 miles)?
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