North Korea Launches Suspected Hypersonic Ballistic Missile In 1st Test Of 2025

North Korea has for the past several months been ramping up missile tests, but on Monday Pyongyang launched a suspected hypersonic missile in its first such test-fire of 2025.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) indicated it traveled approximately 1,100km (some 690 miles) into the East Sea after being launched at around 12 noon. This would be enough to reach US Pacific bases in locations like Guam.

The timing appeared intent on sending a message, given that at that moment US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Seoul holding meetings with South Korean leadership amid an ongoing political crisis.

While the JCS noted the rocket flew a shorter distance than is normal of intermediate-range ballistic missile, they said it was a suspected hypersonic, meaning it is so fast as to be difficult for modern defenses to intercept.

Newsweek provides more of the regional context as follows:

Monday’s launch was North Korea’s first since it fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles toward a similar area in November, just days ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

Pyongyang’s first test-fire of 2025 came as Blinken, America’s top diplomat, met with South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok. Choi assumed the interim role after the South Korean Parliament voted to impeach a second president in two weeks.

At a press conference later the same day, Blinken said Russia was likely providing North Korea with advanced satellite technology in exchange for Kim’s dispatch of elite troops to the Ukraine war.

Blinken addressed the new launch during a press conference in Seoul, saying ”Today’s launch is just a reminder to all of us of how important our collaborative work is.”

As for South Korea, an official foreign ministry statement said the missile launch “constitutes a clear violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and poses a serious threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and the international community.”

During a visit to Seoul, top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken fended off questions over his country’s willingness to speak out following impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed attempt to impose martial law. https://t.co/l8ffktr8P6

— The Japan Times (@japantimes) January 6, 2025

Pyongyang has been seen as engaged in heightened nuclear saber-rattling over the last year, especially following the US decision to at times park a nuclear submarine at South Korean port. The north has also frequently condemned joint US-South Korean military drills, which it denounces as “invasion rehearsals”.

Seoul and the West at this point are deeply worried that the north could renew banned nuclear tests. The last known North Korean nuclear test was in 2017.