North Korea claims intermediate-range strategic missile drill... mentions failure of South Korean and Japanese detection

North Korean Workers' Party Vice Department Director Kim Yo Jong claimed that a mediumrange strategic missile exercise was conducted over the East Sea in the early hours of the 3rd, and said that the military authorities of South Korea and Japan failed to track it adequately. According to the Korean Central News Agency, the country's leader personally observed the exercise, and North Korea emphasized that its missiles make detection difficult through lowaltitude flight path changes and various flight modes. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that around 6:30 a.m. that same day, it had detected one ballistic missile launched from the Wonsan area of North Korea toward the East Sea, and explained that the flight distance was estimated at over 700 km. South Korean and U.S. military authorities are conducting a detailed analysis of the missile's exact specifications. The military authorities are also leaving open the possibility that this launch was a test firing of a mediumrange or intermediaterange ballistic missile, and are examining the possibility that it was part of a hypersonic intermediaterange ballistic missile family with erratic maneuvering characteristics.