(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Hyo-jung = North Korea launched several ballistic missiles from the Pyongyang area into the East Sea on the morning of the 12th, the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced.
Jang Do-young, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's press office, announced in a briefing, "At around 9:20 a.m. on the 12th, we detected several ballistic missiles launched from the Pyongyang area of North Korea toward the East Sea."
Director Jang said, “The captured North Korean missile flew more than 900 km, and South Korea and the United States are closely analyzing its exact specifications.”
Previously, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a press notice regarding North Korea's ballistic missile launch that day, "The military has strengthened surveillance and vigilance in preparation for additional launches, while South Korea, the United States, and Japan are maintaining full readiness by closely sharing information related to North Korea's ballistic missile."
This is the first time North Korea has fired a missile in the Pyongyang area since it launched about 10 short-range ballistic missiles, believed to be 600mm super large multiple rocket launchers (KN-25), into the East Sea on August 20.
This is North Korea's 16th ballistic missile launch this year and the first in 9 days since the 3rd.
North Korea claimed that the ballistic missile launched from the Wonsan area to the East Sea on the 3rd was a 'mid-range strategic missile' equipped with a hypersonic warhead.
Chairman Kim Jong-un, who observed the test launch at the time, emphasized, "We must continue to make responsible efforts to constantly and repeatedly make our opponents aware of the reliability of strategic attack means and their lethality."
North Korea claimed that this missile flew 1,000 km and that our military authorities, who announced the range as 'more than 700 km', failed to detect it.
This launch also took place four days after the South Korean government announced the first test launch of a domestically produced hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) in response to a North Korean landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
On the 8th, with President Lee Jae-myung in attendance, the government conducted its first test launch of an HGV being developed with Korean technology from a barge at the Anheung Test Site of the Agency for Defense Development (ADD). Afterwards, a photo of the HGV launch was also released.
Hypersonic missiles fly at a speed of Mach 5 or higher and perform irregular maneuvers that are different from the normal parabolic ballistic trajectory, making them very difficult to track and intercept, so they are called 'game changers' on the battlefield.
In response to this, the government demonstrated deterrence against North Korea by revealing advanced weapons in response to the North Korean mine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and an assessment was made that the competitive structure between North and South Korea over the development of hypersonic missiles was revealed.
There is analysis that North Korea's latest launch may have been a repeated launch of a hypersonic missile that is difficult to detect in its terminal stage, given that our authorities only announced a flight range of over '900 km'.
Unlike the trajectory of a general ballistic missile, a hypersonic missile performs a pull-up (descent and reascension) maneuver in the descent phase and then glides for a certain section. It is characterized by a longer flight range than expected by the Korean and Japanese military authorities due to limitations in radar detection due to the curvature of the Earth.
If it is launched over 900 km, there is a possibility that it is a mid-range launch or longer.
Regarding North Korea's intention for this launch, Director Jang Do-young said, "So far, the initial analysis is that it is a demonstration of performance according to the roadmap of the five-year national defense development plan, including a demonstration of force in response to the successful test launch of our hypersonic missile, and an intentional display of missile capabilities."
