North Korea said it fired a new solid-fuel missile fitted with a hypersonic warhead on January 14. The launch is Pyongyang’s first known weapons test in 2024 and its first-ever test of a solid-fuel hypersonic IRBM. Analysts say the test shows North Korea’s efforts to build more powerful, harder-to-detect weapons designed to strike remote US targets in the region. The launch came two months after North Korea said it successfully tested engines for a new solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile. Meanwhile, the missile launch occurred on the same day North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui left for Russia.