(Bloomberg) -- An intercontinental ballistic missile North Korea fired this week that achieved a record flight potentially allows leader Kim Jong Un to load heavier warheads and help him deliver a nuclear strike to the US mainland.
Photos released by North Korean state media Friday showed the missile being launched from what appeared to be at least an 11-axle mobile launcher as Kim watched the firing with his daughter by his side. North Korea’s previous ICBM launch in December involved a 9-axle truck.
In a dispatch a day after the launch of the long-range missile, the official Korean Central News Agency described it as a new missile, a Hwasong-19. The missile is an ICBM of an “ultimate version” that will be used by the strategic forces of its military.
Kim said the test-fire demonstrated the missile’s “matchless strategic nuclear attack capability before the world.”
Coming just ahead of the US presidential election, Kim’s show of defiance comes as his surprise move to send troops to Russia to support Moscow’s war on Ukraine has rattled South Korea and its partners. They have said Kim’s actions mark a dangerous escalation in the two-and-half year-old conflict.
The missile was fired at a lofted angle from an area near Pyongyang early Thursday, flying some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) into waters off its east coast, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. North Korea said the missile reached an altitude of 7,687.5 kilometers after flying for some 86 minutes, the longest flight recorded for a missile fired by North Korea.
The missile seems to have been developed to carry multiple warheads, Kim Dong-yub, a professor at Seoul-based University of North Korean Studies said, citing the round design of the tip of the missile.
“Whether the warheads can actually hit the intended targets is a different question. But at least they are saying that they have secured a delivery system for that,” professor Kim said.
South Korea earlier said the launch may have showcased a new solid-fuel ICBM. Such missiles have propellants baked into rockets that allow them to be rolled out and fired in minutes, giving the US less time to prepare for interception. The challenge becomes even greater if the missile carries more than one warhead.
Still, it’s unclear whether the country’s ICBMs could avoid anti-missile systems deployed in the US. It’s also unknown whether the warheads could survive reentry into the atmosphere.
The US and its allies have sought to discourage Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim from deploying North Korean soldiers to the front lines of the war in Ukraine.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday in a joint news conference with their visiting South Korean counterparts that about 8,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia’s Kursk region, where they are expected to engage in what Blinken called “front-line operations” soon.
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