South Korea denies Pyongyang's success in launching ha ypersonic missile

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Agencies - INA

North Korea's claim to have launched a new hypersonic missile is a bluff, South Korea's military said Tuesday.

The assessment came hours after North Korea said it had successfully tested the missile the previous day, saying it flew 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) at a speed 12 times the speed of sound.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier that the ballistic missile launched from the Pyongyang area flew about 1,100 kilometers before falling into the East Sea.

"It is highly likely that North Korea's claim of the flight distance and the second apex is a deception. The flight range analyzed by South Korea, the United States and Japan was about 1,100 kilometers, and (the missile) did not reach the second apex," Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Lee Sung-joon said, denying North Korea's claim that the missile reached the second apex at an altitude of 42.5 kilometers.

Source: Agencies