On 18 March, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un did something very odd: he gave a man a piggyback ride. It isn’t every day that the dictator of an isolated, Stalinist tyranny lets one of his subjects climb on his back. But 18 March wasn’t just any day.
North Korea had just successfully tested a new rocket engine – one that it claimed to have designed entirely by itself. The whole world will “soon witness what eventful significance the great victory won today carries,” 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.
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’s long-range weaponry.
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