North Korea says it just demonstrated some advanced new weapons tech.
The nation successfully test-launched "a new type of weapon" on Sunday (Sept. 20), the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced today (Sept. 22).
KCNA did not provide details about the test. But photos suggest that it involved a short-range missile topped with a hypersonic warhead, according to NK News, a Seoul-based publication that focuses on happenings in the Hermit Kingdom.
ICYMI: North Korea tested ‘new’ hypersonic missile on Sunday: State media: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a test of a “new” missile on Sunday that appears to be a short-range system with a hypersonic warhead, according to state media and NK News… https://t.co/bVvS6s9Q1YSeptember 22, 2026
Hypersonic vehicles travel at least five times faster than the speed of sound and are highly maneuverable. They are therefore much harder to track and intercept than ballistic missiles, which, though very fast, follow predictable trajectories.
The United States and a number of other countries have been developing hypersonic weapon systems for a number of years now, so it's no big surprise that North Korea is working on one as well.
And that system is pretty advanced, according to KCNA, which said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was present for Sunday's test.
KCNA said that Kim described the system as a type of "ultra-modern defense technology" that "would give the enemy an incurable headache and a very cruel and unavoidable blow," according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
It's unclear how seriously to take such claims, however. Bluster and bravado are big parts of the playbook for North Korea, an isolated and oft-sanctioned autocracy that the Kim family has ruled since 1948. Pyongyang has repeatedly threatened to launch a nuclear attack on the United States, turning multiple cities into "seas of fire."
These threats have been empty to date, of course, but they cannot be dismissed out of hand: North Korea has dozens of nuclear warheads, and the country is working to develop more powerful, longer-range missiles with which to deliver them.
Pyongyang's missile tests sometimes coincide with events involving the United States or South Korea, which North Korea regards as its two chief adversaries. Last month, for example, the nation launched a missile in the leadup to planned joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises.
The timing of this latest test may have been designed to send a message as well. After all, it "came ahead of the U.N. General Assembly's high-level general debate, slated to open Tuesday (U.S. time), and the upcoming summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington on Thursday," Yonhap wrote.
North Korea may be "signaling to the Trump administration that it has no intention of curbing its military buildup," the outlet added.
