{"id":301612,"date":"2025-01-09T06:35:54","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T06:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=301612"},"modified":"2025-01-10T09:07:14","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T09:07:14","slug":"north-korea-says-it-tested-hypersonic-intermediate-range-missile-aimed-at-remote-pacific-targets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=301612","title":{"rendered":"North Korea says it tested hypersonic intermediate range missile aimed at remote Pacific targets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kim Tong Hyung \u2013 AP News Jan 7, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n

North Korea said Tuesday its latest weapons test<\/a> was a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile designed to strike remote targets in the Pacific as leader Kim Jong Un vowed to further expand his collection of nuclear-capable weapons to counter rival nations.<\/p>\n

The North Korean state media report came a day after South Korea\u2019s military said it detected North Korea launching a missile that flew 1,100 kilometers (685 miles) before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The launch, conducted weeks before Donald Trump returns as U.S. president, came off a torrid year in weapons testing.<\/p>\n

North Korea demonstrated multiple weapons systems last year that can target its neighbors and the United States, including solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles, and there are concerns that its military capabilities could advance further through technology transfers from Russia, as the two countries align over the war in Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

North Korea in recent years has flight tested various intermediate-range missiles, which if perfected, could reach the U.S. Pacific military hub of Guam. In recent months, North has been testing combining these missiles with purported hypersonic warheads to improve their survivability.<\/p>\n

North Korea since 2021 has been testing various hypersonic weapons<\/a> designed to fly at more than five times the speed of sound. The speed and maneuverability of such weapons aim to withstand regional missile defense systems. However, it\u2019s unclear whether these missiles are consistently flying at the speeds the North claims.<\/p>\n

The North\u2019s state media said Kim supervised Monday\u2019s launch, and that the weapon traveled 1,500 kilometers (932 miles), during which it reached two different peaks of 99.8 kilometers (62 miles) and 42.5 kilometers (26.4 miles) and achieved a speed amounting to 12 times the speed of sound, before accurately striking a sea target.<\/p>\n

Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson of South Korea\u2019s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the South Korean military believes North Korea was exaggerating capabilities of the system, saying the missile covered less distance and that there was no second peak.<\/p>\n

Lee said the test was likely a followup to another hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile test last April and said it would be difficult to use such systems in a relatively small territory like the Korean Peninsula. He said the South Korean and U.S. militaries were continuing to analyze the missile.<\/p>\n

Kim described the missile as a crucial achievement in his goals to bolster the North\u2019s nuclear deterrence by building an arsenal \u201cno one can respond to,\u201d according to the official Korean Central News Agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hypersonic missile system will reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region that can affect the security of our state,\u201d the agency quoted Kim as saying.<\/p>\n

Kim reiterated that his nuclear push was aimed at countering \u201cdifferent security threats the hostile forces posed to our state,\u201d but KCNA didn\u2019t mention any direct criticism toward Washington, Seoul or Tokyo.<\/p>\n

The launch took place while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Seoul for talks with South Korean allies over the North Korean nuclear threat and other issues.<\/p>\n

In a news conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul on Monday, Blinken condemned North Korea\u2019s launch, which violated U.N. Security Council resolutions against the North\u2019s weapons programs. He also reiterated concerns about the growing alignment between North Korea and Russia in Moscow\u2019s war on Ukraine. He described the military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow as a \u201ctwo-way street,\u201d saying Russia has been providing military equipment and training to the North and \u201cintends to share space and satellite technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to U.S., Ukrainian and South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops<\/a> and conventional weapons systems to support Moscow\u2019s war campaign. There are concerns that Russia could transfer to North Korea advanced weapons technology<\/a> in return, which could potentially enhance the threat posed by Kim\u2019s nuclear-armed military.<\/p>\n

At a year-end political conference, Kim Jong Un vowed to implement the \u201ctoughest\u201d anti-U.S. policy and criticized the Biden administration\u2019s efforts to strengthen security cooperation with Seoul and Tokyo, which he described as a \u201cnuclear military bloc for aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n

North Korean state media did not specify Kim\u2019s policy plans or mention any specific comments about Trump. During his first term as president, Trump met Kim three times for talks on the North\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n

Even if Trump returns to the White House, a quick resumption of diplomacy with North Korea could be unlikely. Kim\u2019s strengthened position \u2014 built on his expanded nuclear arsenal, deepening alliance with Russia<\/a> and the weakening enforcement of U.S. international sanctions \u2014 presents new challenges to resolving the nuclear standoff, experts say.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un described the missile test as a crucial achievement in his goals to bolster the North\u2019s nuclear deterrence by building an arsenal \u201cno one can respond to\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":301614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-301612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Fringe_Science_New_Discoveries_and_Developments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=301612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301613,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301612\/revisions\/301613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/301614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}