North Korea launched a ballistic missile on January 4, one day before the summit between President Lee Jae-myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The launch appears to have been an expression of discontent over the summit and a show of force.
According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the missile launched from near Pyongyang flew approximately 900 km before falling into the East Sea. The military detected a flight distance of about 900 km, while the actual flight distance was reported to be around 1,000 km. Notably, there is a high likelihood that the missile was the hypersonic short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) Hwasong-11Ma, and that it was a maximum-range launch attempt.
The Hwasong-11Ma was first unveiled at North Korea's arms exhibition in early October last year and later appeared at a military parade. It features a glider-type hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) mounted on the warhead of the so-called "North Korean Iskander" (KN-23). Experts believe that if the hypersonic warhead enables low-altitude evasive flight at more than five times the speed of sound, it would be extremely difficult for South Korean and U.S. interception systems to counter.
