North Korea showed off the latest addition to its ballistic arsenal, a Hwasong-8 missile armed with a hypersonic glider vehicle, during its "Self-Defence-2021" military exhibition, in which the country demonstrated its most recent advances in weaponry, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
A missile with characteristic glider wings at the top, earlier spotted on the images of Hwasong-8 test, could be seen on one of the KCNA photos from the event.
Little is known about the characteristics of the Hwasong-8, apart from that it is a medium-range ballistic missile carrying a hypersonic glider with a warhead. Externally, the missile looks similar to the Dongfeng-17 (DH-17) medium-range ballistic missile equipped with DF-ZF hypersonic glider used by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), the DPRK neighbour.
However, some military experts suggest that, unlike the solid-fuel DH-17, the Hwasong-8 uses liquid fuel loaded in ampoules which reportedly allows for faster launch preparation.