South Korea carried out the first flight test of its own domestically developed hypersonic weapon on Thursday, a missile designed to fly at least five times the speed of sound and dodge missile defense systems.
President Lee Jae Myung attended the test and called it a major step in strengthening the country’s conventional defense capabilities, according to a government statement, which did not say where the test took place.
According to the statement, the weapon separated from its booster rocket at the planned altitude, then descended and maneuvered both vertically and horizontally before striking a test target. Once fully developed, officials said, the weapon would be able to strike key targets by surprise within the “Korean Peninsula theater of operations.”
Lee said South Korea “must secure our security through our own strength.” He also inspected the country’s most powerful ballistic missile, the Hyunmoo-5, the same day, his office said. His office did not report any direct comments from him about North Korea.
There was no immediate response from North Korea, which tested its own hypersonic missile last week.
Rising tensions on the peninsula
Relations between the two Koreas have grown more strained in recent weeks after three South Korean soldiers were injured by land mine explosions near the heavily fortified inter-Korean border last month. South Korea’s military and the U.S.-led United Nations Command concluded the mines were planted by North Korea, which has denied responsibility and mocked South Korea’s demands for an apology.
North Korea has also ramped up its own weapons testing as leader Kim Jong Un expands his nuclear military program and takes a harder line toward Seoul. Kim has so far rebuffed President Trump’s calls to restart diplomacy that collapsed in 2019, with Pyongyang demanding Washington drop its “hostile” policy and abandon denuclearization as a precondition for talks.
The tensions mark a setback for Lee, who has favored engagement with the North and has tempered his rhetoric even as public anger over the mine blasts has grown. He has also pushed to strengthen South Korea’s own conventional defenses while reducing reliance on the United States, which in August unilaterally scaled back a major joint military exercise with Seoul, with Trump citing his “very good relationship” with Kim.
North Korea’s own hypersonic test
On Oct. 3, North Korea launched what it called a hypersonic intermediate-range missile, claiming it flew more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles). Japan said the missile landed in waters outside its exclusive economic zone. South Korea said it tracked the missile flying more than 700 kilometers (435 miles), while Japan’s Defense Ministry assessed the flight at about 680 kilometers (422 miles).
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea’s leader, argued that the differing estimates from Seoul and Tokyo showed the two U.S. allies could not properly track such a missile in flight and therefore could not intercept it.
