Kim Jong Sik, First Deputy Department Director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, issued the following statement on the 16th.

Our national defence scientific and technological collective cannot conceal its astonishment at yet another announcement of “advanced technology” from the ROK.

The point the ROK Ministry of National Defence rebutted as being “that technology” is a stretch so far-fetched as to be somewhat embarrassing—one that no technical collective of any country could accept.

The prevailing perception will be that it is nothing more than an excuse lacking scientific explanation.

The question of soot on the surface of the hypersonic glide vehicle, which Senior General Jang Chang Ha, Director of the Missile General Bureau, mentioned on the 14th, is not a matter of heat-resistant materials or thermal protection performance.

They put forward the far-fetched claim of “thanks to the excellent performance of domestically produced heat-resistant materials,” but with the technology of any country whatsoever, the phenomenon of the paint burning away due to the rise in surface temperature caused by aerodynamic heating cannot be prevented.

This is an issue unrelated to heat-resistant materials, erosion or normal flight operation.

A supersonic aircraft may be another matter, but what could it mean that the paint layer of a hypersonic missile remains fresh right up to the moment of impact?

The very attempt to package even an unavoidable physical phenomenon as a “special technology” of their own looks truly wretched.

We are not proposing to engage in a technical dispute with the ROK tribe over a single photograph of that sort.

Through this opportunity, we have heard everything we wanted to hear.

“In the future, our military plans to further advance the HGV weapon system, a core strategic asset of future security, and related technologies”…

This is the undisguised statement of position by the ROK military gangsters that slipped out while they were making excuses for their exposed flaw.

Such confrontational ambitions of the cunning enemies have provided us with an utterly excellent justification for strengthening our national defence capability.

This serves as a clear explanation of why we invariably uphold the line of overwhelming superiority of strength.