North Korea tests ‘combat’ missile
North Korea has successfully fired a new anti-aircraft missile, state media said Friday, the latest in a flurry of weapons tests by the nuclear-armed nation.
The anti-aircraft missile had a “remarkable combat performance” and included twin-rudder controls and other new technologies, the official Korean Central News Agency said.
A picture in the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed the missile ascending at an angle into the sky from a launch vehicle (pictured) on Thursday.
It is the latest in a series of tension-raising steps by Pyongyang, which has hitherto been biding its time since the change in US administrations in January.
In September, North Korea launched what it said was a longrange cruise missile, and earlier this week tested what it described as a hypersonic gliding vehicle, which South Korea’s military said appeared to be in an early stage of development.
KCNA also reported this week that the North’s leader, Kim Jongun, decried Washington’s repeated offers of talks without preconditions as a “petty trick” in a speech to the country’s rubberstamp parliament, accusing the new administration of continuing the “hostile policy” of its predecessors.
South Korea’s defence ministry told AFP it was unable to immediately confirm the latest launch.