As its ruling party turns 80, an emboldened Kim Jong Un shows off North Korea’s new hypersonic weapon, ICBM

By Brad Lendon, Gawon Bae, CNN

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — North Korea showed off a new hypersonic glide vehicle and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) at a military parade late Friday, as it marked 80 years of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.

The Hwasong-11Ma hypersonic weapon and the Hwasong-20 ICBM, which state media called North Korea’s “most powerful nuclear strategic weapons system,” were among an arsenal of North Korean weaponry featured in the overnight parade in Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square.

The celebration came a month after leader Kim Jong Un scored a major diplomatic victory by traveling to Beijing for a massive Chinese military parade, where he had the rare chance to stand alongside global heavyweights on the global stage, namely Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kim emerged from the visit with deeper strategic ties and a renewed friendship with China, North Korea’s longtime political and economic patron, as well as an increased vigor to pursue his missile and nuclear weapons program.

Since that meeting in Beijing, state media has featured reports of new or improved North Korean weapons systems – among them the Hwasong-11Ma, with a maneuverable hypersonic warhead, and the Hwasong-20.

The Hwasong-11Ma was first seen at a military exposition in Pyongyang a week ago.

The weapons of the Hwasong-11 series are short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) based on Russia’s Iskander missiles, which have seen extensive use in Moscow’s devastating strikes across Ukraine.

North Korea appears to have fitted the new 11Ma model with a warhead carried in a boost glide vehicle, essentially a flattened and finned glider that enables the warhead to take an erratic course to its target, making it difficult for defenders to spot and defensive missiles to hit.

It’s called hypersonic because it can make these maneuvers while traveling at more than five times the speed of sound.

The Kim regime has been testing hypersonic glide vehicles since at least September 2021. But a test in January 2024 used a solid-fueled booster rocket, as opposed to liquid-fueled ones in earlier tests.

Solid-fueled rockets can be moved more easily and fired more quickly – in a matter of minutes – than liquid-fueled versions, making them harder to defend against.

North Korea may have benefitted from lessons its ally Russia has learned using the air-launched version of the Iskander missile – the Kinzhal – in Ukraine.

But a number of analysts have been skeptical of Russian claims about the effectiveness of the Kinzhal, according to an August report from the US Congressional Research Service.

Earlier this year, North Korea announced that a new high-thrust rocket that would power the missile had passed final testing.

Meanwhile, the appearance of the nuclear-capable Hwasong-20 was the first for North Korea’s newest ICBM.

It’s possible that what was seen in the military parade was only a cannister believed to carry the weapon, atop an 11-axle transporter-launch vehicle, as Pyongyang has not yet announced flight tests.

That engine, which is solid-fueled and made of carbon fiber composite materials, has been tested nine times on the ground, according to North Korean state media.

KCNA said the engine would also be used on the Hwasong-19 ICBM, which has been flight-tested and which experts believe has the range to hit anywhere in the United States.

The ICBM appeared to be the last to rumble through Kim Il Sung Square on the the night.

“The spectators broke into the most enthusiastic cheers when the column of Hwasong-20 ICBMs, the most powerful nuclear strategic weapon system of the DPRK, entered the square, filling the track,” KCNA reported, using the initials for the country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

While new missiles were what Western observers were eager to get a look at, the parade also featured upgraded main battle tanks, dubbed the Cheonma-20.

The tanks, with “tremendous striking capability and (a) reliable protection system, passed through the square with the will to annihilate the enemies,” state media reported.

Also in the parade formations were North Korean troops who fought against Ukraine, helping to expel Kyiv’s forces from the Kursk region of Russia earlier this year.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the country’s National Security Council, was among foreign dignitaries at the Pyongyang parade.

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