CHILLING footage shows the moment Kim Jong-un test fired his new sinister missile as he watched on with his young daughter.
The North Korean despot warned the new powerful rocket will “constantly strike extreme uneasiness and horror” into enemies.
Kim Jong-un and his daughter, 10, watched as the missile fired into the air[/caption]
The tyrant has taken the youngster to several launches in recent months[/caption]
Most of the country’s largest ballistic missiles use liquid fuel, which requires them to be loaded with propellant at their launch site – a time-consuming and dangerous process.
The Hwasong-18, however, is a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that state media said had been tested to “radically promote” North Korea’s nuclear counterattack capability.
It is seen as making it easier for the dictator to launch a full-scale nuclear strike.
Kim has stepped up weapon trials in recent months amid escalating tensions over joint military exercises between the US and South Korea.
North Korean state media outlet KCNA released photos of Kim watching over the latest launch, accompanied by his wife, sister Kim Yo-jong and 10-year-old daughter, Kim Ju Ae.
Footage shows the missiles blasting into the sky while pictures show the tyrant and his young daughter watching on.
The rocket was launched on Thursday morning by the reclusive state – leading to an evacuation order on the Japanese island Hokkaido.
Fragments from the missile fragments fell outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan.
The missile, fired from near Pyongyang, flew about 1,000 km before landing in waters east of North Korea, according to officials.
Kim guided the test, and warned it would make enemies “experience a clearer security crisis, and constantly strike extreme uneasiness and horror into them by taking fatal and offensive counter-actions until they abandon their senseless thinking and reckless acts”.
South Korea‘s defence ministry said North Korea was still developing the weapon, and that it needed more time and effort to master the technology, indicating that Pyongyang might carry out more tests.
Analysts said it is the North’s first use of solid propellants in an intermediate-range or intercontinental ballistic missile.
Developing a solid-fuel ICBM has long been seen as a key goal for North Korea, as it could help the North deploy missiles faster during a war.
Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: “For any country that operates large-scale, missile based nuclear forces, solid-propellant missiles are incredibly desirable capability because they don’t need to be fuelled immediately prior to use.
“These capabilities are much more responsive in a time of crisis.”
North Korea will most keep some liquid-fuel systems, complicating the calculations of the US and its allies during a conflict, Panda said.
Vann Van Diepen, a former US government weapons expert who now works with the 38 North project, said solid-fuel missiles are easier and safer to operate, and require less logistical support.
This makes them harder to detect and more survivable than liquids.
North Korea first displayed what could be a new solid-fuel ICBM during a military parade in February after testing a high-thrust solid-fuel engine in December.
Kim and his daughter watching the launch on Thursday[/caption]
