North Korea says it tested solid-fuel missile with hypersonic warhead
Al JazeeraLatest test ratchets up tensions days after Kim Jong Un designated South Korea as an enemy state. North Korea said it has tested a new solid-fuel missile fitted with a hypersonic warhead as it continued efforts to develop more powerful, harder-to-detect weaponry. “This launch is more than just a test as it comes immediately after the Kim regime escalated warlike rhetoric toward South Korea and just before North Korea’s foreign minister travels to Russia,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul said in emailed comments. “Pyongyang’s show of force should be of concern beyond Seoul, as its military cooperation with Moscow adds to the violence in Ukraine, and because it may be more willing to challenge the U.S. and its allies while global attention is fixed on the Middle East.” In separate KCNA commentary on Monday, North Korea accused Seoul of escalating tensions in the region with military drills and calls for more armaments by South Korean officials. Analysts say Kim’s move to designate South Korea as a separate, enemy state, could potentially help justify the use of nuclear weapons against Seoul in a future war.