North Korea said Kim Jong Un watched an intermediate-range missile drill on Saturday that it claims can change course at low altitude with artificial intelligence. Seoul said the missile flew more than 700 kilometres.
North Korean state media said on Sunday that Kim Jong Un oversaw an intermediate-range strategic missile launch drill early on Saturday, with his daughter present. The Korean Central News Agency said the drill was meant to train troops operating a hypersonic strategic weapon system.
KCNA quoted Kim as saying the exercise showed the missile troops' professional qualifications and counterattack posture, and that the country must keep making adversaries recognise the reliability of its strategic weapons. His sister said the missile can change its flight orbit at low altitude using artificial intelligence, and that there was no way to avoid the attack. A later account said the technology allows at least four trajectory modes.
South Korea's military said the missile was launched from an area around Wonsan and flew more than 700 kilometres. Pyongyang separately claimed a flight of about 1,000 kilometres toward a target in the Sea of Japan. The two distance figures were not reconciled in the reports available on Sunday.
The launch came days after Seoul's military demanded an apology for a blast in the Demilitarized Zone that wounded three South Korean soldiers and that it blamed on the North. Independent technical confirmation of the AI claim was not available.
Seoul had not announced a new sanctions step tied specifically to Saturday's drill by Sunday evening. The flight path and the unverified guidance claim are the points regional militaries are likely to keep examining.