The new type of intermediate-range ballistic missile launched by North Korea on Sunday is a "game changer", according to analysts, because it uses a solid fuel engine that makes the weapon more stable and reduces the time required to fuel a missile before launch.
The Pukguksong-2 is also road-mobile on tractor-erector-launcher units, analysts point out, all of which means that the weapon is more difficult to detect and neutralise before it is launched.
"The liquid fuel engines that North Korea uses in all its medium- and long-range missiles are dangerous because the fuel is so corrosive and volatile", said Lance Gatling, a defense analyst and president of Tokyo-based Nexial Research Inc.
"It is questionable if they have the capacity to store liquid rocket fuel for long periods and typically they tend to fuel their rockets just before launch", he told The Telegraph.
In October, a TEL unit for a Musudan ballistic missile was badly damaged when the weapon exploded shortly after launch. Five Musudan tests earlier in the year were also judged by South Korean intelligence to have been failures after they blew up in flight.
North Korean state media has claimed that the missiles were deliberately destroyed. READ MORE
