North Korea ‘hypersonic’ missile launch prompted US to pause flights

Name: North Korea fires first suspected ballistic missile of the new year
Uploaded: 2022-01-11T21:33:48.000Z
Duration: 2 min 22 s
Description: North Korea fires first suspected ballistic missile of the new year

The weapon test – Pyongyang’s second in less than a week – achieved Mach 10 speeds, South Korea’s military said

The launch may have been timed to coincide with a UN Security Council meeting to ‘maximise political impact’, one researcher says

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A test firing of what North Korean media reported as a hypersonic missile is seen at an undisclosed location on January 5. It was followed less than a week later by another launch. Photo: KCNA via Reuters

Agence France-Presse

Published: 5:33am, 12 Jan 2022

The United States briefly halted some flights on its west coast after North Korea test-launched a ballistic missile, its second weapons test in less than a week, officials said Tuesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revealed it had “temporarily paused departures at some airports along the west coast” on Monday evening local time after the launch, which South Korea’s military warned showed clear signs of “progress” from last week’s test.

The launch came as the UN Security Council met in New York to discuss last week’s test of what Pyongyang called a hypersonic missile, though Seoul has cast doubt on that claim.

But the South Korean military said the “suspected ballistic missile” launched Tuesday Korean time had reached hypersonic speeds.

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North Korea fires first suspected ballistic missile of the new year

In the decade since leader Kim Jong-un took power, North Korea has seen rapid advances in its military technology at the cost of international sanctions.