• North Korea says it has successfully tested a solid-fueled rocket engine.
• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended the test.
• Thursday, a satellite launch facility tested a new high-thrust rocket motor.

North Korea announced on Friday that it has successfully tested a solid-fueled rocket engine, a development that would enable Kim Jong Un’s government to launch ICBMs more quickly and consistently in the future.

The News Agency reported that the new high-thrust rocket motor was tested on Thursday at a satellite launch facility northwest of Pyongyang.

North Korean leader Kim was pictured in photos posted by state media attending the test, which according to Media “guaranteed the construction of another new kind strategic weapon system.”

According to analysts, that might be a brand new intercontinental ballistic missile.

“That, my friends, is the first stage of a solid propellant ICBM,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Non-proliferation Studies, in a Twitter post.

According to experts, if the new rocket engine could be successfully merged with an ICBM, the advancement may be significant.

“If North Korea’s high-thrust solid-fuel motor ground test at Sohae is nearly as successful as they claim, it is a significant step for the country’s nuclear-capable missile development,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

Compared to the liquid-fueled rockets that North Korea has previously tested on ICBM launches, solid-fueled rockets are more reliable. This implies that an ICBM with solid fuel may be moved more easily and launched more quickly than one with liquid fuel.

All of those things would shorten the amount of time an adversary would have to respond to a North Korean ICBM.

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