North Korea’s Missile Test, a 9-Minute Hop, Leaves Analysts Puzzled<br />When North Korea successfully launched its Pukguksong-2, Kim Jong-un boasted<br />that his country’s "rocket industry has radically turned into high thrust solid fuel-powered engine from liquid fuel rocket engine." That comment left many South Korean officials wondering whether the North was trying to modify its existing liquid-fuel missiles, including Scud-ERs, into versions with solid fuel.<br />South Korean officials said that whether they were botched or not, the tests of the Musudan<br />and Pukguksong missiles gave North Korea important insights for its efforts to build an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, that could strike the United States.<br />After studying the Pukguksong-2 test in February, the United States Strategic Command called the missile "a medium- or intermediate-range ballistic missile."<br />But North Korea used an unfamiliar term, a "medium long-range ballistic missile," indicating that its potential range would be longer.<br />By CHOE SANG-HUNAPRIL 7, 2017<br />SEOUL, South Korea — If North Korea wanted to rattle the United States<br />and China with its missile test this week, the launch itself was more fizzle than bang.<br />The United States Pacific Command said that the missile fired on Wednesday was a Pukguksong-2 but<br />that it had been deployed from "a land-based facility" near Sinpo, a port on the east coast of North Korea, rather than a mobile launch vehicle inland.<br />American and South Korean officials initially said they believed<br />that the North had launched its Pukguksong-2, a newly developed, nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile that uses solid-fuel technology, which makes it easier for the country to hide its weapons and deploy them on short notice.
