North Korea says the new hypersonic missile will “contain” competitors in the Pacific

North Korea claimed it had launched a new medium-range ballistic missile equipped with a hypersonic warhead that “will reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region.”

Pyongyang’s launch on Monday, the first in two months, came while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Seoul for talks with some of South Korea’s key leaders.

Hypersonic weapons are difficult to track and shoot down, because they are capable of traveling at more than five times the speed of sound.

North Korea claims its missile traveled at 12 times the speed of sound for a distance of 1,500 kilometres.

The South Korean military said earlier that the missile flew 1,100 kilometers before falling into the sea, adding that it “strongly condemns” this “clear provocative act.”

North Korea has previously tested hypersonic missiles. Photos published by KCNA showed Monday’s missile similar to one launched in April last year, but Pyongyang claims the latest missile features a new “flight and guidance control system” and a new engine made of carbon fiber.

On Tuesday, the official North Korean Central News Agency quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as saying that the launch that took place on Monday “clearly demonstrated to competitors what we are doing and that we are fully prepared to use even any means to defend our legitimate interests.”

Ankit Panda, a nuclear weapons specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the launch of a new weapon was “not surprising.”

“We have known that North Korea has been working with composite materials for use in missiles for several years.

He told the BBC: “The appeal of these materials is to improve the performance and reliability of payloads on a large scale… and better materials can increase the odds of them surviving to target.”

Earlier Monday, Blinken met with Acting President Choe Sang-mook, where he described the alliance between Washington and Seoul as “the cornerstone of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.”

South Korea’s military said it has stepped up monitoring of North Korea’s future missile launches and is “closely exchanging information” about the launches with the United States and Japan.

The launch took place amid a state of political chaos in South Korea, which the country has been embroiled in for weeks after the suspension of President Yeon Suk-yul. Try short-lived martial law In December.

Yoon, who was stripped of his presidential powers after lawmakers voted to impeach him, now faces arrest. The Constitutional Court is also deliberating whether he should be removed from office.

Pyongyang previously mocked Yoon’s shock declaration of martial law “Crazy work” Without a hint of irony, he accused Yoon of “brazenly brandishing the blades and guns of the fascist dictatorship at his own people.”

North Korea is widely considered one of the most repressive totalitarian states in the world. Its leader Kim Jong Un and his family have ruled the reclusive country for decades as a dictatorial dynasty, developing and promoting a cult of personality.

The last time Pyongyang fired missiles was in November, one day before the US presidential election, when it launched at least seven short-range ballistic missiles off its eastern coast.

Earlier that week, the United States flew a long-range bomber during trilateral military exercises with South Korea and Japan in a show of force, drawing condemnation from Kim Yo Jong, Kim’s sister.