North Korea says it tested intermediate-range, AI-assisted ballistic missile

North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, says her country has tested an intermediate-range AI-assisted missile, after the South Korean military said Pyongyang had fired a ballistic missile that flew more than 700 kilometers (435 miles) toward the sea off its east coast.

Kim Yo Jong, who is a director of North Korea’s ruling party, says in a statement that a drill of a “strategic weapon” was conducted toward the sea off its east coast using the missile.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the drill which was carried out by “a firepower sub-unit undertaking an exclusive special mission,” his sister said.

Citing statements by Seoul and Tokyo regarding how far the missile flew, she said the results showed the limitations of Japanese and South Korean tracking capability.

“Whenever we applied the wave-like trajectory mode to missiles, the enemy failed to track the targets from their first skip points,” she says, without showing any evidence.

South Korea and Japan also “should acknowledge the speed of the missile,” she says, without disclosing the speed. The missile was also capable of changing its flight orbit at a low altitude with artificial intelligence technology applied, she adds.

“In other words, this means that there is no way to avoid this attack,” she says.

North Korea has launched missile tests on more than 10 occasions so far this year. Pyongyang has sometimes said it was testing new types of weapons systems. Some of the tests have come after North Korea protested joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.

The launch came after Kim Yo Jong issued a statement on Friday that dismissed Seoul’s demand for an apology for what it said were North Korean mines that seriously wounded South Korean soldiers in the Demilitarized Zone, a heavily fortified area between the two Koreas.