North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has supervised the test of a “high-thrust solid-fuel motor” for a new strategic weapon, state media reported, a development that could allow him to possess a more mobile, harder-to-detect arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach the mainland US, EDnews reports citing TRT.
Thursday’s “static firing test” of a missile engine at the country’s northwest rocket launch facility was the first of its kind in North Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. It said that the test provided “a sure sci-tech guarantee for the development of another new-type strategic weapon system."
Kim praised scientists and technicians over the test, saying he expected the new weapon would be built “in the shortest span of time," KCNA said.
North Korea is likely referring to a solid-fueled ICBM, which is among an array of high-tech weapons systems that Kim vowed to introduce during a major ruling Workers' Party conference early last year.
Other weapons systems Kim promised to manufacture include a multi-warhead missile, underwater-launched nuclear missiles and spy satellites.
The latest motor test showed that North Korea is determined to carry out Kim’s vows to develop such sophisticated weapons systems despite its pandemic-related domestic hardships and US-led international pressures to curb its nuclear program.