Missile Musudan

The Hwasong-10, also known as the Musudan, is a mobile intermediate-range ballistic missile developed by North Korea from the early 1990s. The system is derived from the Soviet R-27 Zyb submarine-launched ballistic missile. It was first displayed publicly during a military parade in October 2010.

The single-stage missile uses a liquid-propellant engine fueled by a hypergolic combination of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. This propellant configuration allows the missile to remain fueled and ready to launch for several days to weeks under moderate ambient temperatures. Because the missile lacks the structural integrity to be transported overland while fully fueled, it must be fueled at the launch site. It utilizes an inertial guidance system. It carries a single warhead of an estimated 500 to 1,200 kg, described as conventional and possibly nuclear-capable. Its range has never been demonstrated on a normal trajectory and remains genuinely uncertain: published estimates span 2,500 to 4,000 km, and the 3,500 km figure listed here is a mid-range assessment rather than a measured one.

The missile is launched from a transporter erector launcher. North Korea conducted a flight-test campaign in 2016 that was overwhelmingly unsuccessful. Of at least six or seven launch attempts, only the second launch on June 22, 2016, flew a full lofted profile. In this test, the missile traveled approximately 400 kilometers downrange. South Korea, the United States, and Japan assessed the apogee at over 1,000 kilometers, while North Korea claimed an altitude of 1,413.6 kilometers. Other tests resulted in on-pad explosions or mid-flight failures. The missile has not appeared in a North Korean military parade since 2017 and is treated as withdrawn, superseded by the Hwasong-12 and later types, although United States intelligence still listed it as deployed in 2020. Iran is a suspected recipient of the system based on a leaked 2010 diplomatic cable, and the Iranian Khorramshahr missile is believed to be derived from the Hwasong-10.