Sharjah24 – AFP: North Korea has successfully tested a hypersonic missile, state media reported Thursday, in the first major weapons test by the nuclear-armed nation this year.
This was the second reported test of what Pyongyang claimed were hypersonic gliding missiles, as it pursues the sophisticated technology despite international sanctions and condemnation.
Hypersonic missiles move far faster and are more agile than standard ones, making them much harder for missile defence systems -- on which the United States is spending billions -- to intercept.
The missile fired on Wednesday carried a "hypersonic gliding warhead" that "precisely hit a target 700 km away", the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, without identifying the launcher.
The warhead also demonstrated a "new" capability, moving 120 km laterally after it detached from the launcher to strike the target, it added.
"The successive successes in the test launches in the hypersonic missile sector have strategic significance," KCNA said.
Hypersonic missiles were listed among the "top priority" tasks for strategic weapons in North Korea's current five-year plan, and it announced its first test -- of the Hwasong-8 -- in September last year.
The Wednesday launch also tested the "fuel ampoule system under winter weather conditions", according to KCNA.
An ampoule system involves a propellant canister attached to the missile when it is manufactured, and could eliminate the need for fuelling it at the launch site.
This offers an advantage over ordinary liquid-fuelled missiles, which have to be loaded with propellant on-site just before launch -- a time-consuming process that gives an enemy ample opportunity to locate and destroy them.
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