N. Korean missile test registers on Israel’s radar screen

FPI / January 13, 2022

Geostrategy-Direct

If North Korea indeed was successful in a second test of a hypersonic missile, Israel and its ally the United States should be highly concerned the technology could make its way to Iran, an analyst said.

“Russia has since 2019 been bragging that its hypersonic missiles give it an unstoppable method for potentially hitting the U.S.,” Yonah Jeremy Bob wrote for the Jerusalem Post on Jan. 7.

If North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is getting closer to having a hypersonic missile that could hit America, it would be game-changer for the Middle East as well given that North Korea and Iran have been cooperating on missile technology for years.

“Kim has shown that putting your head down and expanding nuclear weapons capabilities is a strategy that can throw the West back on its heels,” Bob wrote.

In effect, Kim is therefore providing an alternative playbook to Iran that it does not need to negotiate or play ball with the West.

While it has not been proven that North Korea has developed hypersonic weapons, Kim Jong-Un “has never crossed certain lines that could lead back to him disastrously, such as giving Iran a turnkey ready-to-go nuclear missile,” Bob wrote.

For Israel, “Iran getting the transfer of hypersonic missile technology would be a threat – not just because the Islamic Republic has advanced farther than ever before toward nuclear weapons, but because it would also elevate the conventional ballistic missile threat,” Bob wrote.

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