In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong-un oversees what he calls a “high-thrust solid fuel engine” test at the Sohae satellite launch site on December 15, 2022. PA
It’s not a rocket this time. State agency KCNA announced Friday, December 16, that North Korea has successfully tested a “high thrust solid fuel engine” with the aim of developing a new weapon. The process, overseen by leader Kim Jong-un, “provided scientific and technological assurance for the development of a new type of strategic weapon,” KCNA reported.
Images of this final test, conducted at the Sohae satellite launch base in Tongchang-ri (northwest of the country), showed the leader of North Korea watching the engine’s static ignition, which spewed bright yellow flames.
Despite international sanctions, Pyongyang continues to strengthen its military arsenal, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). All are liquid propellants at the moment, and in 2021 Kim Jong-un had made solid fuel engines a strategic priority to evolve into more advanced projectiles.
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Liquid fuel rockets are indeed more difficult to use and require more preparation time, according to analysts. Because they are slower, they are also more easily spotted and destroyed by the enemy. On the contrary, solid-fuel bullets are “more mobile, quicker to launch and conceal and use in conflicts,” says Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ehwa University in Seoul. According to him, the use of this new technology would make North Korea’s nuclear arsenal “more dangerous”.
“Irreversible” nuclearization of the country
Engine testing is just one step, and it remains difficult to know where the country stands in the development of this type of missile, specialists say. It is indeed “difficult to assess the momentum achieved,” Joseph Dempsey, a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
That year, Kim Jong-un declared that North Korea’s nuclearization was “irreversible” and expressed his desire to have the most powerful nuclear arsenal in the world. Solid fuel ICBMs launched from land or sea would thus be included.
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Pyongyang has conducted an unprecedented series of military tests this year, including the launch in November of its most technologically advanced ICBM yet. South Korea and the USA have been warning of a new nuclear test by North Korea for months. It would be the seventh in its history.