Kim Minseok covers South Korean defense. He has worked as a journalist for South Korean military magazines Military Review and Defense Times. Mr Kim is also a research fellow at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, a think tank.
The new liquid-propellant weapon appeared to be an enlargement of North Korea’s previous ICBM, Hwasong 15, which implicitly has insufficient payload-range capability for all of North Korea’s purposes.
South Korea has reportedly expanded its requirement for additional Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightnings to 40 aircraft from 20, as the defense ministry refines plans for a ship to carry some of them.
