Without Mention of 'Landmines'…"Hypersonic Missile Test-Launch"

[Anchor]

North Korea has released photos of an intermediate-range hypersonic missile test-launch that it claims took place yesterday, October 3. Analysts assess that this missile could potentially put Guam within its strike range.

Without even mentioning responsibility for the landmine explosion incident, why did North Korea disclose such a drill? Reporter Choi Jae-yeong analyzes.

[Reporter]

Describing it as an "intermediate-range strategic missile" launched yesterday, North Korea released photos of General Secretary Kim Jong-un observing the test alongside his wife, Ri Sol-ju, and daughter, Kim Ju-ae.

Featuring a pointed conical warhead, North Korea stated that it conducted a "drill of a hypersonic strategic weapon system."

On a monitor visible in the photos, the characteristic trajectory of a hypersonic missile can be faintly identified.

It appears to pull up in altitude during the descent phase and then glide over a certain distance.

[Korean Central Television : Such activities are clearly aimed at further advancing the country's nuclear war deterrence.]

The booster is presumed to be the Hwasong-16Na type. While North Korea claimed the flight distance of this launch was 1,000 kilometers, experts assess that its range could reach 3,000 kilometers if launched on a standard trajectory.

This means it could strike not only Japan, but also the U.S. territory of Guam.

On September 20, North Korea launched a missile presumed to be a short-range hypersonic missile, in what appears to be an effort to demonstrate that it is systematizing its hypersonic missiles by range.

[Shin Jong-woo / Secretary General, Korea Defense and Security Forum : The short-range hypersonic missile, the Hwasong-11Ma, targets the Korean Peninsula, while the conical hypersonic missile revealed today is an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of striking not only U.S. military bases in Japan, but also Guam....]

In particular, it is notable that North Korea carried out a missile test threatening as far as the U.S. territory of Guam on the very next day after rejecting South Korea's demands for an apology and dialogue regarding the landmine explosion incident.

[Hong Min / Senior Research Fellow, Korea Institute for National Unification : Regardless of South Korea's demands for corresponding measures regarding the landmine explosion, they delivered a comprehensive message that strengthening deterrence based on their self-designated status as a nuclear-armed state will proceed as planned.]

The South Korean military stated that it is fully capable of detecting and intercepting North Korean missiles with combined South Korea-U.S. defense assets.

(Video by Choi Jin-hwa | Graphics by Kim Han-gil)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.