North Korea launched an “unidentified ballistic missile” on Sunday, Seoul’s military reported, just days after Pyongyang announced a successful test of a high-thrust solid-fuel engine aimed at developing a new weapon.
“North Korea has fired an unidentified ballistic missile at (the) East Sea,” also known as the Sea of Japan, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Despite heavy international sanctions weighing on its weapons programs, Pyongyang has built an arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
All of its ICBMs, however, are liquid-fed. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has given strategic priority to the development of solid fuel engines to make more advanced missiles, such as the successful test announced on Friday.
Kim Jong Un said in 2022 that he wanted North Korea to have the most powerful nuclear force in the world and declared his country’s status as a nuclear state “irreversible”.
Among its unveiled goals in 2021 is the development of solid-fuel ICBMs that could be launched from land or submarines.
The engine test announced on Friday was a step towards achieving that goal, but experts don’t know what stage of development North Korea is at on such missiles.
Pyongyang has conducted a record series of weapons tests this year, including its most advanced ICBM.
The United States and South Korea have been warning for months that North Korea may be planning what would be its seventh nuclear test in its history and first in five years.
