North Korea Hypersonic Missile Answered by Seoul's First HGV as Russian Aid Fuels Arms Race

North Korea and South Korea conducted separate hypersonic-related missile tests five days apart in October 2026, sharpening attention on their respective high-speed strike programmes. Pyongyang reported a launch on October 3, while Seoul announced its first domestic hypersonic glide vehicle flight test on October 8 to assess essential flight and trajectory technologies. South Korean officials characterize the vehicle as a future manoeuvring precision-strike system, but North Korea disputed whether the test achieved hypersonic performance. Reports of increasing Russian cooperation with Pyongyang provide additional context, though the precise technical contribution to this particular missile development has not been established.