North Korea claimed Tuesday to have successfully tested a new high-powered rocket engine for launching geo-stationary satellites in its latest efforts to advance its missile technology.
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Leader Kim Jong-un also called for more tests, so that North Korea will become a “possessor of geostationary satellites in a couple of years to come”, the agency also cited him as saying.
North Korea has been testing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles at an unprecedented rate this year under Kim’s direction, including the launch of a satellite in February that was widely seen as a test of long-range ballistic missile technology.
The test showed that “thrust and other technological indexes of the engine accurately reached the estimated values, and that the feature values of all systems of the engine remained stable throughout the 200 seconds-long working time”, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
Earlier this month, North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test, prompting South Korean and United States officials to vow to apply more sanctions and pressure on Kim’s government.
Photographs of the front page of today’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper show the supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, beaming as an engine fixed into a scaffold belches orange flames.
Rocket scientist Chae Yeon-Seok at the South’s Korea Aerospace Research Institute said such an engine would represent “a technical leap forward” in developing launch vehicles. The newly-tested rocket engine can be used to launch long-range missiles, he added.
Pyongyang has already boasted of its capacity to miniaturize a nuclear warhead and thus attack the American mainland, while carrying out regular tests of shorter range projectiles in recent months including submarine-launched ballistic missiles – although analysts generally feel North Korea’s present range is limited to closer targets such as the South and Japan. The date of the test wasn’t given but North Korean state media typically report on Kim’s activities the following day.
Jeon Ha-kyu, a spokesman at South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said South Korea believes the test was for a new engine for a long-range missile.
North Korea frequently makes claims about technical advances that are almost impossible to confirm. “Earlier this month, Pyongyang conducted its fifth atomic test in a decade”. That has strained relations between Beijing-the North’s main ally-and Washington as well as Seoul.
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According to reports from International Business Times, Kerry stated that Kim Jong-un, supreme leader of North Korea, is a reckless dictator and that the USA and other countries in the world would make it clear to him that all he is doing is depriving his people of economic opportunities.
