President Moon Jae-in is speaking before receiving a status report after inspecting advanced weapons and military equipment at the Agency for Defense Development located in Yuseong, Daejeon on the 23rd. 2020.7.23 Photo by Yonhap News
[Asia Economy Reporters Yang Nak-gyu and Son Sun-hee] President Moon Jae-in visited the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) located in Yuseong District, Daejeon, on the 23rd to inspect cutting-edge strategic weapons and encourage the research team. This visit marks about three years since President Moon last visited ADD in June 2017, his first year in office.
At 10:30 a.m. that day, President Moon visited the ADD research laboratories and conducted a private weapons inspection for about 40 minutes, followed by a briefing on the status of weapons system development from Director Nam Se-gyu. Despite unfortunate incidents such as the leakage of defense technology at ADD, President Moon is known to have encouraged the development of the new ballistic missile "Hyunmoo-4." Attending from the government side were Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) Administrator Wang Jeong-hong, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Strategic Planning Director Lee Seong-yong. From the Blue House, Chief of Staff Noh Young-min, National Security Office Director Suh Hoon, First Deputy Director of the National Security Office Kim Yu-geun, and Defense Reform Secretary Ahn Jun-seok were present.
In 2017, President Moon visited the Defense Science Research Institute's comprehensive test site in Taean, Chungnam, to observe the test launch of the "Hyunmoo-2" ballistic missile. The missile launched at that time flew the planned range and accurately hit the target point. Initially, the observation was scheduled for former First Deputy Director of the National Security Office Lee Sang-cheol, but after being briefed on the event the day before, President Moon expressed his intention to attend personally, leading to a sudden change in schedule. This reflects President Moon's strong interest in ballistic missiles.
In September of the same year, President Moon held a South Korea-U.S. summit with U.S. President Donald Trump and agreed to revise the South Korea-U.S. missile guidelines. The existing missile guidelines, which required reducing warhead weight as range increased?a "trade-off" approach?were revised, opening the way for the development of ballistic missiles with a maximum range of 800 km and a warhead weight of up to 2 tons. ADD soon began developing the new ballistic missile Hyunmoo-4.
The military and related circles view President Moon's recent visit as driven by high interest in the Hyunmoo-4. In mid-March, ADD conducted the first test launch of the Hyunmoo-4 ballistic missile at the Anheung Test Site in Taean County, Chungnam, with participation from Kim Yu-geun, First Deputy Director of the Blue House National Security Office, but the launch failed. However, after three months of testing and evaluation, development is reported to have entered its final stages.
The military expects that if the Hyunmoo-4 receives combat suitability certification within this year and mass production begins next year, it will possess power comparable to tactical nuclear weapons. A warhead weight of 500 kg is sufficient to destroy an airfield runway, but if the warhead weight increases to 2 tons, it will have at least three times the penetration power of the current strongest bunker buster, the GBU-57. It can penetrate reinforced concrete over 24 meters thick and general ground up to 180 meters, effectively possessing tactical nuclear-level power.
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