North Korea's hypersonic ballistic missile surpasses even the Iskander-M.

The test took place on October 22nd, when the North Korean military launched two missiles from Ryokpho district in the capital Pyongyang, toward a target area in North Hamgyong province, near the Chinese border.

Both missiles accurately struck their targets on the Kwesang plateau.

The missile, which was first tested at the Defense Development Exhibition 2025 in Pyongyang in early October, is believed to be the successor to the KN-23 system – a weapon system that has attracted attention from observers for its maneuverability and high accuracy.

However, the biggest difference of the new missile model, designated Hwasong-11Ma, is the integrated hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) in its warhead.

This structure allows the warhead to change its trajectory at extremely high speeds during the final stage, making interception nearly impossible.

The Hwasong-11Ma still uses the same chassis, launch vehicle, and booster stage as the KN-23, but the addition of supersonic glide technology has taken it to a whole new level.

Previously, in March 2024, North Korea unveiled the Hwasong-16B medium-range ballistic missile, the world's first medium-range weapon equipped with a hypersonic glide warhead. With the Hwasong-11Ma, Pyongyang has become the first country to integrate this technology into a short-range missile system, thus opening an unprecedented avenue in the field of tactical weapons.

The KN-23 series was considered an upgraded version of Russia's Iskander-M, capable of flying at low altitudes of only about 50 km and performing agile maneuvers that made it difficult for radar to track. However, with the addition of a hypersonic warhead, the Hwasong-11Ma is considered to surpass the Iskander-M in terms of speed, penetration capability, and accuracy.

Speaking after the launch, Pak Jong-chon, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, declared that the test results demonstrated "a steady upgrade in the self-defense technical capabilities of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea." He also called the Hwasong-11Ma "a new strategic weapon of special significance," and praised the engineers and scientists for achieving remarkable progress in a short period of time.

Analysts believe that with the Hwasong-11Ma, North Korea has become the third country in the world, after Russia and China, to possess ballistic missiles using hypersonic glide warheads.

Nevertheless, Pyongyang's deployment of this technology for short-range missiles is unprecedented. This not only expands its tactical strike capabilities but also poses a significant challenge to the missile defense systems of the United States, South Korea, and Japan.

Notably, North Korea is believed to have recently exported variants of the Hwasong-11, specifically the KN-23 and KN-24 systems, to Russia. Therefore, the possibility that Pyongyang is also offering the Hwasong-11Ma to Moscow is highly probable.