DPRK confirms successful test fire of hypersonic missile

PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has successfully test-fired a hypersonic missile, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Thursday.

The missile, launched by the Academy of Defence Science on Wednesday, manoeuvred 120 km laterally before it precisely hit a target 700 km away, which proved the reliability of a new fuel system, the report said.

This is the second test fire of hypersonic missile confirmed by the DPRK after the country launched Hwasong-8 in September. The "successive successes in the test launches" in the hypersonic missile sector "have strategic significance in that they hasten a task for modernizing strategic armed force of the state", it added.

The reliability of the fuel system under the winter weather conditions was also verified, the report said.