North Korea announced on Sunday that it had conducted, at dawn on 3 October, a drill involving the launch of an intermediate-range strategic missile from an eastern area of the country towards the East Sea of Korea. Leader Kim Jong-un attended the launch site, in a training that it said was aimed at assessing the readiness of missile forces and the capabilities of a strategic hypersonic weapons system.
Pyongyang announces objectives of missile drill
North Korea’s official news agency said the drill was held to train missile-force personnel responsible for operating the strategic hypersonic weapons system in handling their equipment. It added that the training also sought to assess the reliability, effectiveness and manoeuvrability of the country’s war deterrent. The report said Kim Jong-un supervised the launch drill in the field.
The North Korean leader said strategic missile-force personnel had demonstrated their professional competence and full readiness to carry out a counterattack during the training, showing skill in operating their main offensive system and readiness to move immediately. Kim added that the results of the drill had strengthened confidence in North Korea’s deterrent.
Kim calls for stronger strategic deterrence
He stressed the need to continue what he described as responsible efforts without interruption, with the aim of ensuring that the enemy continually understood the reliability and lethality of strategic offensive means, considering this a form of practising deterrence. Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s sister and an official in the ruling Workers’ Party, said in a statement issued on Saturday that her country had tested an intermediate-range strategic missile.
She explained that drills involving a “strategic weapon” had been conducted towards the sea off the country’s east coast using an intermediate-range missile. Kim Yo Jong added that Kim Jong-un had supervised the training, which was carried out by an “armed sub-unit entrusted with an exclusive special mission”. Earlier on Saturday, South Korea’s military announced that North Korea had launched a ballistic missile that travelled more than 700 kilometres towards the sea off its east coast.
Kim Yo Jong addressed statements from Seoul and Tokyo about the distance travelled by the missile, saying that the findings reached by South Korea and Japan reflected the limitations of their tracking capabilities. She called on them to “quickly acknowledge the missile’s speed”, without disclosing the speed it reached during the training.
The North Korean official also said the missile was capable of changing its flight path while travelling at low altitude, using artificial intelligence technology.
She added that this capability meant, in her words, that “there is no way to avoid an attack by this missile”.
