The report by the North state media came a day after South Korea’s military said it detected the North firing two missiles into the sea in its third weapons launch this month. The missiles fired from rail cars appeared to be a solid-fuel short-range weapon the North has apparently modeled after Russia’s Iskander mobile ballistic system. The announcement by the Treasury Department came just hours after North Korea said Kim oversaw a successful test of a hypersonic missile on Tuesday that he claimed would greatly increase the country’s nuclear “war deterrent.” Tuesday’s test was North Korea’s second demonstration of its purported hypersonic missile in a week. Such weapons were on a wish-list of sophisticated military assets Kim unveiled early last year along with multi-warhead missiles, spy satellites, solid-fuel long-range missiles and submarine-launched nuclear missiles. Still, experts say North Korea would need years and more successful and longer-range tests before acquiring a credible hypersonic system.

Source: The Hindu January 15, 2022 11:03 UTC