North Korea performs key test to build more agile ICBM

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has tested a “high-thrust solid-fuel motor” as a key step toward building a new strategic weapons system, state media reported Friday, as the country pushes to develop more agile and powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to strike the U.S. mainland.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised the successful “static firing test” at the country’s northwest rocket launch facility on Thursday, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

KCNA said the test, the first of its kind in North Korea, carried “strategic significance” as it provided “a sure sci-tech guarantee for the development of another new-type strategic weapon system.” It said Kim expected the new weapon would be built “in the shortest span of time.”

North Korea is likely referring to a solid-fueled ICBM, which is among an array of high-tech weapons systems that Kim vowed to introduce during a major ruling Workers’ Party conference early last year. Other weapons systems Kim promised to manufacture include a multi-warhead missile, underwater-launched nuclear missiles and spy satellites.

The latest motor test showed that North Korea is determined to carry out Kim’s vows to develop such sophisticated weapons systems despite its pandemic-related domestic hardships and U.S.-led international pressures to curb its nuclear program. In recent months, North Korea has test-fired a barrage of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles including last month’s launch of its developmental, longest-range Hwasong-17 ICBM designed to carry multiple warheads.