North Korea is working toward the deployment of hypersonic missiles that it claims could render South Korean and U.S. missile defenses useless. Still, its claims of a successful test this month appear greatly exaggerated.

An advanced, fully developed hypersonic missile could allow the North to pose a serious threat against South Korea. Such a missile could fly very fast, very low, maneuver to counter defenses, and accurately hit its targets, potentially defeating South Korean and U.S. missile defenses and making targets in South Korea vulnerable. North Korea’s bluster about its test is clearly aimed at creating an environment of fear in South Korea and elsewhere.

On April 2, North Korea launched what it claimed was an intermediate-range missile equipped with a “newly-developed hypersonic gliding flight warhead.” North Korean state media announced that “the hypersonic glide warhead reached its first peak at a height of 101.1 kilometers and the second at 72.3 kilometers while making a 1,000-km-long flight as planned to accurately hit waters in the East Sea.”

While South Korea, Japan, and the United States don’t reveal their full technical findings on missile tests, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) showed that this North Korean missile is still early........

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