North Korea has continued to try and instill fear into Washington and Seoul, on Sunday firing two short-range ballistic missiles toward the Sea of Japan.
However, these were apparently new military toys in the arsenal, with state media touting "a new type of weapon" - which Kim Jong Un later described as capable of giving "the enemy an incurable headache and a very cruel and unavoidable blow."
Kim further said the test, which was conducted by North Korea’s Missile Administration, showcased the armed forces' ability to fight and that "the enemy will know better what such progress means without any explanation."
As for what makes this a 'new' weapon which is special and out of the ordinary, Space.com details:
But photos suggest that it involved a short-range missile topped with a hypersonic warhead, according to NK News, a Seoul-based publication that focuses on happenings in the Hermit Kingdom.
Hypersonic vehicles travel at least five times faster than the speed of sound and are highly maneuverable. They are therefore much harder to track and intercept than ballistic missiles, which, though very fast, follow predictable trajectories.
Kim further hinted at this when talking about his country's possession of "ultra-modern defense technology."
The pace North Korean missile tests have been steadily ticking up.
During the first Trump administration, Kim met the US president on a series of occasions. While historic, it didn't lead to the kind of breakthrough on 'de-nuclearization' that Washington and Seoul were hoping for, and Pyongyang has gone back to being on the extreme defensive.
🇰🇵 "An incurable headache for adversaries"
On September 20, Pyongyang conducted tests of a new hypersonic missile under the personal supervision of Kim Jong Un.
Released footage revealed, for the first time, flight data for a missile designated "Hwasong-11B-1." According to… pic.twitter.com/1HqDRJ0IeD
— dana (@dana916) September 22, 2026
The White House has lately signaled it would like to get back on a direct diplomacy track with Pyongyang, but North Korea has been blistering angry over recent US-South Korea military drills on the peninsula.