North Korea tests high-thrust rocket engine as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visits China
NORTH Korea has tested a “revolutionary” high-thrust rocket engine as the US vowed to work with China to curb the rogue nation.
NORTH Korea has conducted a ground test of a new type of high-thrust rocket engine that leader Kim Jong-un is calling a revolutionary breakthrough for the country’s space program, according to the North’s state media.
Kim, who attended Saturday’s test, called it “a great event of historic significance” for the country’s indigenous rocket industry, a KCNA report said.
It comes as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, where they pledged to work together in addressing the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear program.
It’s not clear whether this test was deliberately timed to coincide with Mr Tillerson’s visit, but Pyongyang has been highly critical of ongoing US-South Korea war-games just south of the Demilitarised Zone and often conducts some sort of high-profile operation of its own in protest.
“I think we share a common view and a sense that tensions in the peninsula are quite high right now and that things have reached a rather dangerous level,” Mr Tillerson said in China.
“We will work together to see if we cannot bring the government in Pyongyang to a place where they want to make a different course, make a course correction, and move away from the development of nuclear weapons.”
North Korea’s latest test at the Sohae launch site was reportedly intended to confirm the “new type” of engine’s thrust power and gauge the reliability of its control system and structural safety.
Kim told local media the “whole world will soon witness what eventful significance the great victory won today carries” and claimed the test marks what will be known as the “March 18 revolution” in the development of the country’s rocket industry.
The KCNA report indicated that the engine is to be used for North Korea’s space and satellite-launching program.
CNN reports Japan has held its first evacuation drill to prepare for a possible North Korean missile.
North Korea is banned by the United Nations from conducting long-range missile tests, but it claims its satellite program is for peaceful use, a claim many in the US and elsewhere believe is questionable.
North Korean officials have said that under a five-year plan, they intend to launch more Earth observation satellites and what would be the country’s first geostationary communications satellite — which would be a major technological advance.
Getting that kind of satellite into place would likely require a more powerful engine than its previous ones. The North also claims it is trying to build a viable space program that would include a moon launch within the next 10 years.
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