[Yang Nak-gyu's Defense Club] First Test Launch of Hyunmoo-4 Ballistic Missile

In 2017, when North Korea conducted a nuclear test, the military launched a Hyunmoo ballistic missile as a retaliatory measure.

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu Reporter] It has been confirmed that the military authorities conducted the first test launch of the new 'Hyunmoo-4 (tentative name)' ballistic missile, which has significantly improved range and warhead weight. The Hyunmoo-4 is the missile with the longest range among those possessed by our military, marking its first appearance three years after President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to revise missile guidelines in 2017 to increase warhead weight.

On the 6th, a government official stated, "In mid-March, the first test development of the Hyunmoo-4 ballistic missile was conducted at the ADD Anheung Test Site located in Taean-gun, Chungnam, with only a few government officials participating, including Kim You-geun, the First Deputy Director of the National Security Office at the Blue House, Nam Se-gyu, Director of the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), and Deputy Director Kang Tae-won."

Until 2017, the South Korea-U.S. missile guidelines limited the maximum range of ballistic missiles to 800 km and applied a so-called 'trade-off' principle, where the warhead weight decreased as the range increased. Accordingly, the warhead weight of a 300 km range ballistic missile (Hyunmoo-2A) was limited to 2 tons, a 500 km range ballistic missile (Hyunmoo-2B) to 1 ton, and an 800 km range ballistic missile (Hyunmoo-2C) to 500 kg. The Hyunmoo-3 is a cruise missile.

After the missile guidelines were revised, our military has developed missiles with warhead weights and power increased fourfold: the warhead weight of a 500 km missile increased from 1 ton to 4 tons, and that of an 800 km missile increased from 500 kg to 2 tons. The missile with an 800 km range and a 2-ton warhead is the Hyunmoo-4 ballistic missile.

The Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency issued navigation warnings along the west coast from March 16 to 22 for the first test launch of the Hyunmoo-4 ballistic missile. At that time, the military authorities reportedly focused on artificially reducing the flight distance and verifying various performances because sending the missile to its maximum range posed military security limitations. To send 800 km from the Anheung Missile Test Site, the missile would cross not only the Korean Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) but also overlapping air defense identification zones of China and Japan. Therefore, the military raised the launch angle higher than the normal firing angle to increase altitude while reducing the straight flight distance during the test launch.

However, it is known that the test launch ended in failure. Considering it was the first test launch, it appears that plans are in place to improve technical completeness through additional tests in the future.

The Hyunmoo-4 is a core weapon supporting our military's 'Kill Chain' system, which can preemptively strike upon signs of North Korean missile launches, and is also related to the promised transfer of wartime operational control within the term of the Moon Jae-in administration.

A government official said, "There were two ballistic missile launches during the test, and one of them was conducted so secretly that it was labeled as 'other missile.' Although it did not achieve 100% success, since it was the first test, visible results seem to have been demonstrated."