Kim Yo Jong says North Korea's intermediate-range missile test used AI to evade tracking

North Korea tested an intermediate-range strategic missile on Saturday, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said in a statement, claiming the weapon used artificial intelligence technology to change its flight orbit at low altitude and evade tracking, Reuters reported.

South Korea’s military said earlier on Saturday that North Korea had fired a ballistic missile which flew more than 700 kilometres towards the sea off its east coast.

Kim Yo Jong, a director of North Korea’s ruling party, said a drill of a “strategic weapon” was conducted towards the sea off its east coast using the intermediate-range missile, and that Kim Jong Un oversaw the exercise, which was carried out by “a firepower sub-unit undertaking an exclusive special mission”.

Citing statements by Seoul and Tokyo on how far the missile flew, she said their results showed the limitations of their 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 said, without showing any evidence. She added that South Korea and Japan “should acknowledge the speed of the missile”, without disclosing it, and said the missile was capable of changing its flight orbit at low altitude with AI technology applied. “In other words, this means that there is no way to avoid this attack,” she added.

Pyongyang has launched missile tests on more than 10 occasions so far this year, sometimes saying it was testing new weapons systems. The launch came a day after Kim Yo Jong dismissed Seoul’s demand for an apology for what South Korea said were North Korean mines that seriously wounded its soldiers in the Demilitarized Zone.