North Korea claims progress in development of hypersonic missile

North Korea successfully tested a solidfuel engine for its newtype intermediaterange hypersonic missile state media reported Wednesday claiming a progress in efforts to develop a more powerful agile missile designed to strike faraway US targets in the regionA hypersonic missile is among an array of hightech weapons systems that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un publicly vowed to introduce in 2021 to cope with what he called deepening US hostility Outside experts say Kim wants a modernized weapons arsenal to wrest US concessions like sanctions relief when diplomacy resumesOn Tuesday Kim guided the ground jet test of multistage solidfuel engine for the hypersonic missile at the Norths northwestern rocket launch facility the official Korean Central News Agency reportedIt cited Kim as saying the strategic value of the new missile with an intermediaterange is as important as intercontinental ballistic missiles targeting the US mainland and that enemies know better about it It said that a timetable for completing the development of the new weapons system was set through the great success in the important testIntermediaterange missiles possessed or pursued by North Korea are the weapons systems primarily aimed at attacking the US Pacific territory of Guam home to US military bases With a range adjustment missiles can be used to strike closer targets like US military installations in Japans Okinawa island experts sayIn recent years North Korea has been pushing to develop more weapons with builtin solid propellants which make launches harder to detect than liquidpropellant missiles that must be fuelled before liftoffs and cannot last long The Norths pursuit of hypersonic weapons is also meant to defeat US and South Korean missile defence systems but its unclear the Norths hypersonic vehicles consistently maintained a desired speed exceeding Mach 5 during tests in 2021 and 2022 experts sayIn January North Korea said it flighttested a new solidfuel intermediaterange ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead in an apparent reference to the missile mentioned in Wednesdays KCNA dispatch In November North Korea said it had tested engine tests for the missileOn Monday South Korea the US and Japan said they detected the multiple ballistic missile testlaunches by North Korea in what was the countrys first missile firings in about a month The North said Tuesday it performed a livefire drill of what it called nuclearcapable superlarge multiple rocket launchers designed to target South Koreas capital Seoul South Koreas military later said it views the North Korean weapons system tested as a ballistic missileNorth Korea has been engaging in a provocative run of missile tests since 2022 The US and South Korea militaries have responded by expanding their bilateral exercises and trilateral drills involving Japan Observers say North Korea will likely intensify its run of missile tests ahead of the US presidential election in NovemberThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever