North Korean hypersonic missile hit target in test firing
This is the DPRK's first hypersonic missile test for 2022.
According to state news agency KCNA, North Korea successfully tested a hypersonic missile this week, as the country seeks new military capabilities amid stalled denuclearisation talks.
In September, North Korea conducted the first hypersonic missile test, joining a race led by major military powers to deploy the advanced weapons system.
Unlike ballistic missiles, which fly into space before returning on steep trajectories, hypersonic weapons fly at lower altitudes and can achieve more than five times the speed of sound – or approximately 6,200 km per hour (3,850 mph).
“The successive successes in the test launches in the hypersonic missile sector have strategic significance in that they hasten a task for modernizing strategic armed force of the state,” the KCNA report said.
Know more: What Are Hypersonic Missiles?
N. Korea fires one ballistic missile from the ground
According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea allegedly fired one ballistic missile from the country's interior toward the Sea of Japan on Wednesday.
This test comes less than three months after the previous one, which occurred on October 19, 2021, when North Korea conducted a submarine ballistic missile test.
"North Korea today at about 8:10 a.m. fired one presumably ballistic missile from the interior part of the country towards the Sea of ​​Japan. The intelligence agencies of South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed analysis of the additional information," the South Korean military told reporters in a statement.