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North Korea launches hypersonic missile

The hypersonic missile North Korea claims to have tested on Tuesday has the potential to be one of the world’s fastest and most accurate weapons — and could be fitted with a nuclear warhead, experts say.

Hypersonic missile systems are some of the latest warfare technology being developed by military powers such as China, Russia and the United States. The weapons fly faster and at lower altitudes than traditional ballistic missiles, allowing them to maneuver more flexibly. They are being developed to eventually carry nuclear warheads.

While the exact specifications of North Korea’s hypersonic Hwasong-8 missile are not yet known, missiles with hypersonic glide vehicles can theoretically fly as fast as 20 times the speed of sound and can be very maneuverable in flight, making them almost impossible to shoot down, according to experts.

North Korea launches hypersonic missile
North Korea launches hypersonic missile

If North Korea can successfully produce and deploy a hypersonic weapon, analysts say it could even change the military equation in the region.

“If true, it means current South Korean and Japanese missile defense systems become close to impotent,” said Lionel Fatton, an assistant professor at Webster University in Switzerland and researcher at Meiji University in Japan.

Those systems are designed for defense against ballistic missiles, which descend on their targets from much higher altitudes than hypersonics.

“A hypersonic missile that can defeat advanced missile-defense systems is a game changer if a nuclear warhead is mated to it,” said Drew Thompson, a former US Defense Department official and a visiting senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. But he cautioned, “that’s a huge if. Having it and wanting it are not the same thing.”

North Korea has detonated six nuclear devices and is believed to have a number of nuclear warheads, according to Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda, nuclear experts at the Federation of American Scientists. But they point out there is no certainty that Pyongyang has successfully been able to put a nuclear warhead on a missile and deliver to its target.

The KCNA report said Tuesday’s test was the first for the hypersonic missile, and that it was was successful.

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