North Korea announced today that its latest missile tests involved a new weapons system of “great significance,” while launch photographs show hypersonic weaponry.
North Korean President Kim Jong Un stated that the development of the weapon would strengthen the country’s war readiness and give its enemies an “incurable headache,” according to the North Korean Central News Agency.
The South Korean military registered that North Korea fired two short-range missiles from the eastern coastal area near Wonsan on Sunday, three hours apart.
The South Korean military’s General Staff stated that the missiles flew about 450 and 600 kilometers toward the sea, while the Japanese military reported that they fell into waters outside the country’s exclusive economic zone.
The launches were the latest in a series of North Korean weapons demonstrations, even after U.S. President Donald Trump in August scaled down a joint military exercise with South Korea in an attempt to revive diplomacy with Kim, who called such exercises invasion rehearsals.
Kim’s sister and senior official Kim Yo Jong rejected Trump’s offer, stating that shortening the exercise would not change its “provocative, aggressive nature.”
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung expressed hope today that the restoration of diplomatic relations between Washington and Pyongyang could also contribute to the resumption of dialogue between the two Koreas.
He called for a practical approach to the denuclearization of North Korea, to be implemented step by step, with the offer of incentives as Pyongyang makes progress in eliminating its nuclear arsenal.
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