North Korea: Kim Jong-un supervises missile launch using artificial intelligence

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a missile launch alongside his daughter, state media reported Sunday, saying the projectile used artificial intelligence to adjust its trajectory. This AI technology allows the missile to “modify its flight trajectory at low altitude,” said Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong-un’s powerful sister, adding that it was therefore “impossible to avoid” the attack.

The missile was fired Saturday morning from an area near the eastern coastal city of Wonsan and traveled more than 700 kilometers, the South Korean military said. “During today's firing exercise, the strategic missile units fully demonstrated their professionalism and ability to retaliate,” Kim Jong-un said after supervising the launch, according to an English-language dispatch from the official North Korean agency KCNA.

“We must relentlessly continue our responsible efforts so that the enemy constantly and repeatedly recognizes the reliability and lethality of our strategic means of attack,” he added. South Korea's military disputed its sister's statements that it would be "impossible to avoid" the missile, saying the projectile fired Saturday could have been intercepted.

“South Korea and the United States maintain a firm joint defense posture and believe that the missile recently launched by North Korea was well within the detection and interception capabilities of the defense assets deployed by the two allies,” the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement. The KCNA report revealed the exact coordinates of the missile's impact point, a level of precision that analysts said demonstrated Pyongyang's "confidence."

“This time, the North communicated the coordinates down to decimal places, which corresponds to an accuracy of about 30 centimeters,” Hong Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification told AFP. Photos released by KCNA show a missile rising into the sky in a burst of orange flames. In another photo, Kim Jong-un smiles, flanked by his daughter Ju Ae and his wife Ri Sol Ju, who applauds.

Ju Ae, first introduced to the public in 2022, is the person most likely to succeed her father, according to South Korean intelligence, which emphasizes her increasingly important role at major official ceremonies and military events.