South Korea has said it will begin deploying its largest ballistic missile yet at the end of the year – a projectile known as the “monster missile” by local media – marking a significant upgrade of its conventional arsenal as tensions rise with nuclear-armed North Korea.
Defence minister Ahn Gyu-back recently told Yonhap News that South Korea must build a “considerable” number of the Hyunmoo-5 missiles in order to “achieve a balance of terror” in the face of the threat posed by the North, and that a next-generation missile with even greater power is needed.