One of the biggest concerns is that Russia may have helped. North Korea has conducted a flurry of missile tests in the past few weeks. Advances in North Korean missile technology are unwelcome in themselves, but any Russian technical backing behind the effort would indicate a tightening of the Moscow-Pyongyang partnership – and greater potential for more North Korean advances.

There have been at least four sets of North Korean missile launches in the past few weeks. On 20 September, North Korea tested a new missile, thought to be one with a hypersonic warhead. According to a South Korean report, North Korea’s Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) provided no details of the missile tested, but wording on the photo caption released by the agency referred to the ‘Hwasongpho-11Ma-1 flight trajectory’. So it is likely to be an ‘upgraded version of the Hwasong-11MA’ hypersonic missile that North Korea first showcased in 2025. South Korean security analysts believe the Hwasongpho-11Ma-1 ‘combines a KN-23, or Hwasong-11Ga, missile body with a hypersonic glide vehicle-type terminal section’. They describe it as ‘a long-range precision-strike weapon designed to penetrate missile defences through manoeuvrability while striking targets several hundred kilometres away.’