SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea announced on Friday it had tested a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a development set to “radically promote” its forces, which experts said would facilitate missile launches with little warning.
Leader Kim Jong Un guided Thursday’s test, and warned it would make enemies “experience a clearer security crisis, and constantly strike extreme uneasiness and horror into them by taking fatal and offensive counter-actions until they abandon their senseless thinking and reckless acts”, North Korean state media said.
Analysts said it was the North’s first use of solid propellants in an intermediate-range or intercontinental ballistic missile, a key task to deploying missiles faster during a war.
South Korea’s defense ministry said North Korea was still developing the weapon, and that it needed more time and effort to master the technology, indicating that Pyongyang might carry out more tests.
North Korean state media outlet KCNA released photos of Kim watching the launch, accompanied by his wife, sister and daughter, and the missile covered in camouflage nets on a mobile launcher. A state media video showed the Hwasong-18 missile blasting off from a launch tube, creating a cloud of smoke.
The development of the Hwasong-18 will “extensively reform the strategic deterrence components of the DPRK, radically promote the effectiveness of its nuclear counterattack posture and bring about a change in the practicality of its offensive military strategy,” KCNA said, using the initials of the country’s official name.
South Korea and the U.S. air forces staged drills hours after the report, involving American B-52H bombers that joined F-35A, F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, Seoul’s defence ministry said.
“By deploying U.S. strategic assets with increased frequency and intensity, the two countries will continue demonstrating our strong alliance’s will that we will never tolerate any nuclear attack from North Korea,” the ministry said in a statement.
North Korea has criticized recent U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises as escalating tensions, and has stepped up weapons tests in the past months.