After conducting a missile test in defiance of Western leaders Wednesday (local time), North Korea now claims the missile fired in that test was actually a hypersonic missile, according to the Associated Press, which would suddenly catapult the isolated nation into the top tier of military technology in the world, if true.
North Korea’s official news agency said the missile carried a hypersonic glide vehicle atop it, which detached from the missile and proceeded in “corkscrew maneuvering” toward a target more than 600 miles away.
This was the second missile launch in less than a week by the renegade Asian nation. Intelligence units from the US, South Korea and Japanese militaries were all monitoring the launch and analyzing data.