North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday night rolled out his nuclear-armed military's most powerful weapons, including a new intercontinental ballistic missile, at a massive military parade at Pyongyang's main square.
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The parade, held to mark 80 years under the Workers' Party, was attended by top officials from Russia and China. Top officials from Vietnam and Laos also attended, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The spectacle featured some of the country's most advanced weapons, including its new Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which KCNA described as its "most powerful nuclear strategic weapon system".
The parade included a long line of weaponry that Pyongyang has tested in recent years, including attack drones, rocket launchers and battle tanks, according to the newspaper.
Here's what we know about the new missile
- The appearance of the nuclear-capable Hwasong-20 was the first for North Korea’s newest ICBM. Pyongyang has not yet announced flight tests. “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 said in its report about the parade.
- The engine used in the missile is a solid-fuel engine and is made up of carbon fiber composite materials. According to KCNA, it has been tested nine times on the ground.
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- The engine is to be used in the ICBM Hwasongpho-19 series and the next-generation ICBM Hwasongpho-20. "Pho" means "artillery" in Korean. “Hwasong” means the planet Mars.
- The weapon was first mentioned by Kim Jong Un shortly before his trip to Beijing in September. 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, CNN underlined.
- Ankit Panda of the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said that he expects the system to be tested before the end of the year. “The Hwasong-20 represents, for the moment, the apotheosis of North Korea's ambitions for long-range nuclear delivery capabilities,” Panda said, according to Reuters.
- "The system is likely designed for the delivery of multiple warheads... Multiple warheads will increase stresses on existing U.S. missile defence systems and augment what Kim sees as necessary to achieve meaningful deterrence effects against Washington," he added.
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- The engine is to be used in the ICBM Hwasongpho-19 series and the next-generation ICBM Hwasongpho-20. "Pho" means "artillery" in Korean. “Hwasong” means the planet Mars.
- The weapon was first mentioned by Kim Jong Un shortly before his trip to Beijing in September. 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, CNN underlined.
- Ankit Panda of the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said that he expects the system to be tested before the end of the year. “The Hwasong-20 represents, for the moment, the apotheosis of North Korea's ambitions for long-range nuclear delivery capabilities,” Panda said, according to Reuters.
- "The system is likely designed for the delivery of multiple warheads... Multiple warheads will increase stresses on existing U.S. missile defence systems and augment what Kim sees as necessary to achieve meaningful deterrence effects against Washington," he added.
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