North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen the successful ground test of a solid-fuel engine for the country's “new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile,” state-run media said Wednesday, as Pyongyang continues to make progress with its already potent missile and nuclear arsenal.
The test, which took place at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground on North Korea’s western coast on Tuesday, “was successfully conducted in the era when eye-opening sci-tech achievements have been simultaneously made in the course of steady development in bolstering up the national defense capability,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
Kim was quoted as saying that “the military strategic value of this weapon system is appreciated as important as (an) ICBM,” a reference to the country’s powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles believed capable of delivering nuclear bombs to the United States.