North Korean President Kim Jong-un celebrates the first test launching of their largest intercontinental ballistic missile.
North Korea released its latest propaganda video showing its leader Kim Jong-un, as the Hermit Kingdom successfully test-launched its largest intercontinental ballistic missile ICBM on March 24 Thursday.
An 11-minute video shows the North Korean leader striding out of a military hangar between two generals clad in a leather jacket and sunglasses with his signature slicked-back hair. The top-gun style scene shows Jong-un pointing to something on the horizon before checking his watch and whipping off his sunglasses.
In a statement released following North Korea’s first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile in over five years, the Supreme Leader described the launch as a “priceless” milestone for his people that proved the strength of the country’s great military muscle.
According to KCNA, Jong-un oversaw the test from a specially built observation bus at an airport in Sunan, on the outskirts of the capital Pyongyang and said that he had ordered the launch of the Hwasong-17 missile as a result of daily-escalating military tension in and around the Korean peninsula.
It includes the inevitability of the long-standing confrontation with the US imperialists accompanied by the danger of a nuclear war. According to Japanese officials, the Hwasong-17 missile flew to an altitude of 6,000 km and fell in Japanese waters after flying for more than an hour.
The footage reveals close-ups of the Hwasong-17 North Korea’s 25-meter intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on an enormous 11-axle road launcher. It is guided into position at an undisclosed location with officials counting down the launch of what analysts say is the largest liquid-fueled missile to be fired from a transporter.
KCNA called the launch a “striking demonstration of great military muscle,” while Jong-un described the moment as a “miraculous” and “priceless” victory.
The missile which was first displayed in October 2020, has been described as considerably larger than North Korea’s previous Hwasong-15, test-fired in November 2017.
When fired on a normal trajectory it has a range of 15,000 km, 9,320 miles, which puts the US mainland and most countries in the world within striking distance.
Analysts believe the large size of the missile suggests the rogue state could equip it with multiple warheads to hit several targets at once or act as decoys. The video also shows it being launched from a Transporter Erector Launcher vehicle (TEL) in what is believed to be the world’s first.
Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the method can make missiles easier to conceal but has some drawbacks due to their large size.
Panda said: “There’s a reason that no other country has ever decided to deploy a liquid-fueled missile that’s this big on a road-mobile launcher: it’s unsafe and operationally unwieldy. A silo, which might make more sense for a missile this size, would be strategically worse for the North Koreans given its vulnerability to prompt pre-emption.”
Jong-un had made the deployment of an ICBM with a 15,000km range and multiple warheads a key strategic goal, along with hypersonic missiles, smaller nuclear warheads, and drones.
Rachel Minyoung Lee of the Washington-based 38 North program that monitors North Korea, said Pyongyang’s goal seems to be to strengthen its leverage so it can turn denuclearization talks into nuclear-reduction talks.
She said: “The message of the North Korean readout of yesterday’s ICBM launch is clear: North Korea will continue to develop its nuclear arsenal.”
The next step for North Korea would be building solid-fuel missiles, which are more stable and can be launched with almost no warning or preparation time.