It was only a matter of time before North Korea lit things up again. As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken embarked on a five-day sojourn to Seoul, the hermit kingdom welcomed the US official in the way it knows best – by testing another ballistic missile.
North Korean state media proudly announced that Monday’s missile launch was of its latest hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile system. For Kim Jong Un, now entering his 14th year in power, the test of the ‘strategic weapon’ – which flew 1,100 kilometres with an altitude of close to 100 kilometres – would ‘contain any rivals in the Pacific’ and demonstrate to its ‘enemies’ that it would be ‘fully ready to use any means to defend our legitimate interests’.
Pyongyang’s missiles are flying higher, further, and staying airborne for longer
This is hardly the first time that the country has tested hypersonic missiles, which, due to their ability to travel hypersonically – at least five times above the speed of sound – take less time to reach their respective target.
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