TOKYO, April 5. /TASS/. North Korea is ready to test fire its new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, Shunji Hiraiwa, professor at Nanzan University and one of Japan’s leading experts on North Korea, told TASS.
"As for a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, I think that preparations for its test launch are completed," he said, adding that Pyongyang might conduct such a test in response to joint military drills conducted by the US and South Korea.
According to the expert, there are no serious obstacles that could prevent this kind of missile test because China and Russia keep blocking the United Nations Security Council’s sanctions against Pyongyang.
Hiraiwa does not believe that a successful launch of a solid-fuel IBM would fundamentally change the security situation in the region given the progress in other areas of North Korea’s missile and nuclear program. "A successful test of a solid-fuel IBM would mean greater mobility [for North Korea’s missile weapons] but North Korea has already increased their mobility in other ways so, although a solid-fuel [IBM] would definitely raise risks, they would remain fundamentally the same," the expert explained.
North Korea has recently conducted a number of missile test launches, particularly firing missiles from mobile launchers, a train, a submarine and an underwater launcher installed in a lake. In addition, the March 19 missile test presumably involved a silo-based launcher. Pyongyang announced a successful test of a solid-fuel engine at the end of last year, while the country’s leader Kim Jong-un set the goal of developing a new IBM, which would enable carrying out a nuclear counterattack.