North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and daughter Kim Ju-ae watch the launch of the new Hwasong-19 ICBM on Oct. 31, 2024. (KCNA/Yonhap)
North Korea announced on Friday that it had successfully tested its latest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasong-19, calling it the “ultimate version” of a “perfected weapon system.” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the launch on the ground and boasted that the test proved before the world that “the dominant position the DPRK has secured in the development and manufacture of nuclear delivery means of the same kind is absolutely irreversible.” Kim was accompanied by his daughter Ju-ae when observing the launch.
North Korea’s state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun devoted the front page and following two pages to celebrating the success of the missile agency’s test of the Hwasong-19.
“The missile traveled up to the maximum altitude of 7,687.5 km and flew a distance of 1,001.2 km for 5,156 seconds [85.9 minutes] before landing on the preset target area in the open waters of the East Sea of Korea,” the paper reported.
The statistics are almost exactly the same as the estimates announced by South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and Japan’s Ministry of Defense. In the photographs published by North Korea, the nose cone of the new missile is more rounded, indicating that it could carry more than one nuclear warhead. However, Joint Chiefs officials declined to draw any conclusions, saying that they were still assessing the specifics of the missile.
The most eye-catching phrase in Rodong Sinmun’s report is how it defines the Hwasong-19 as the “ultimate version.” While the boast may be exaggerated propaganda to heighten the spirits of North Korean citizens, it can also be read to imply that North Korea now no longer needs to develop better ICBMs.
This so-called “ultimate” ICBM is reminiscent of the speech Kim made in 2017 to declare North Korea’s nuclear deterrent as “complete.” When North Korea successfully conducted the ICBM Hwasong-15’s flight tests on Nov. 29, 2017, when North Korea and the US were butting heads and causing the crisis on the Korean Peninsula to escalate, Kim announced, “We have finally realized the great historical cause of completing the state nuclear force.”
While no other country with nuclear capabilities has declared its powers to be “ultimate” or “perfected,” North Korea may be using such vocabulary to indicate its willingness to switch from a confrontational stance to one open to negotiations.
North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun dedicated the first three pages of its Nov. 1, 2024, edition to the test-firing of what it quoted the Missile General Bureau as calling the “latest-type ICBM Hwasongpho-19” and an “an ICBM of ultimate version.” (KCNA/Yonhap)
On April 20, 2018, Kim declared that North Korea would no longer strive toward developing its economy and nuclear powers in tandem and imposed a moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and ICBMs during the third plenary session of the 7th Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee meeting.
This declaration was followed by three inter-Korean summits and two US-North Korea summits in 2018-2019. The failure of the February 2019 US-North Korea summit in Hanoi led to the revival of North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, and the moratorium on ICBM tests was scrapped on March 24, 2022, with the flight test of the Hwasong-17. The moratorium on nuclear weapons testing has been kept for seven years since North Korea’s sixth nuclear test in September 2017.
Some are remarking on the Rodong Sinmun’s use of the term “ultimate” as marking a pivotal change in the situation in North Korea, mirroring the situation in November 2017, when North Korea announced its nuclear powers as complete.
A former senior South Korean government official commented, “While we will have to wait and see, North Korea may be laying the foundation for future negotiations since the US will welcome a new administration after the presidential election.”
“We do have to remember that Kim is not willing to make any concessions when it comes to strengthening the country’s nuclear powers,” they added, saying, “We will have to keep a close eye on what Kim declares during the upcoming Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee meeting at the end of the year.”
Both the South Korean and US governments have strongly condemned North Korea’s flight tests of the Hwasong-19 as violating the UN Security Council resolutions. At the sixth US-ROK foreign and defense ministerial meeting, held in the US Department of State in Washington on Thursday (local time), the two countries announced such sentiments in a joint statement and reaffirmed their goal of denuclearization. While South Korea emphasized the denuclearization of North Korea, the US focused on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as a whole.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry imposed sanctions on four North Korean entities and 11 individuals, including China-based diplomat Choe Chol-min, for involvement in missile development and foreign currency activities on Friday.
By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer; Park Min-hee, senior staff writer; Choi Woo-ri, staff reporter
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