South Korea has said it has the ability to counter hypersonic weapons tested by the Pyongyang regime.

The South Korean army assured this Wednesday that hypersonic missile technology, which Pyongyang claimed to have tested during Tuesday’s session, it is at an early stage of development and Seoul and Washington have the capacity to counter it.

Seoul considers that “it is at an early stage of development and considers that it will take a long time before these “hypersonic missiles” are deployed, which North Korea said it launched yesterday as a test, ”the southern Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.

“Currently, the joint assets of the Republic of Korea (official name of South Korea) and the United States are considered to be at a level capable of detecting and intercepting them ”, writing concludes.

The declaration comes a few hours later Pyonyang claimed to have tested a hypersonic missile for the first time on Tuesday. The missile launch, nicknamed the Hwasong-8, was conducted by the Toyang-ri Academy of Defense Sciences, Chagang Province (North), although it did not have the presence of the North Korean dictator, as the state agency reports today KCNA.

This type of technology largely continues to expand globally. and very few countries – it is believed only Russia and China – seem to have it fully operational.

According to North Korean propaganda, the test was used to promote this weapon whose development “is one of the five main priorities of the five-year plan in the field of strategic weapons” raised at the one-party congress last January.

During the missile test – of which KCNA only publishes a photo in the ignition phase – academy scientists advised “navigation control and missile stability”, including the “maneuverability” of the guidance system and the gliding capability of the warhead.

Missiles or hypersonic vehicles technically cross the sound barrier at least five times in flight, that is, they exceed 6,177 kilometers per hour, and the fact that they can fly at low altitude and trace non-parabolic trajectories makes them a very difficult tactical weapon to intercept.

This last North Korean test illustrates the recent escalation of arms in the peninsula.

Pyongyang has already tested two ballistic missiles and a cruise missile two weeks ago, a series of tests to which Seoul responded by testing its first submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) and announcing several new weighty developments.

Although last week he seems to have sent more conciliatory messages to Seoul, Pyongyang, which this year also reactivated facilities capable of producing fuel that can be used for atomic bombs, he still does not respond to Washington’s offer to reactivate the dialogue on denuclearization, which has stalled since 2019.

(With information from EFE)

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