On 18 March, North Korea鈥檚 leader Kim Jong-un did something very odd: he gave a man a piggyback ride. It isn鈥檛 every day that the dictator of an isolated, Stalinist tyranny lets one of his subjects climb on his back. But 18 March wasn鈥檛 just any day.
North Korea had just successfully tested a new rocket engine 鈥� one that it claimed to have designed entirely by itself. ,鈥� Kim was quoted as saying.
In the months since, the world has witnessed a series of new North Korean missiles. In April and May came the Hwasong-12, capable of sending a nuclear weapon-sized payload a distance of 4500 kilometres.
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And in July came two tests of a missile known as the Hwasong-14. The latest, on Friday, saw a Hwasong-14 fired more than 3700 km into space. Had it been aimed toward the US, it would have been capable of reaching cities such as Los Angeles and New York.
All of these missiles use the same engine that was tested on 18 March. This is beyond doubt a new phase in North Korea鈥檚 long-range weaponry.
Missile testing
In addition to the new engine, better propellants are being used. And the missiles appear to have relatively lightweight but strong airframes.
In recent years, North Korea has modernised missile production facilities. Kim was pictured next to machines that might be used to make those more sophisticated engines and airframes. And since 2014, North Korea has been testing missiles at a pace far greater than before.
The . The Hwasong-14 is a two-stage device 鈥� essentially a small rocket on top of a larger one. While the large bottom stage uses the engine tested in March, an image released by North Korea suggest the smaller upper stage resembles those first seen in Iran several years ago, used for the Safir and Simorgh satellite launchers.
The result is that the Hwasong-12 and Hwasong-14 missiles appear to be far more advanced than any previously seen in North Korea. Despite the speed and surprise of recent tests, many experts still remain sceptical about what has been achieved and raise doubts about the reliability of its nuclear weapons.
I don鈥檛 share these doubts. They were expressed about China after it tested its first nuclear weapons and long-range missiles in the 1960s. In time, though, China demonstrated that it could master all these technologies even though it was every bit as impoverished then as North Korea is said to be today.
North Korea has more than demonstrated the capability to deliver a nuclear weapon to the US. But don鈥檛 take my word for it. Just look at Kim, with that smile on his face and a man on his back.
