North Korea tests new rocket engine

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches a rocket engine test — (Image credit: Stringer/Getty Images)

North Korea successfully conducted a "high-thrust engine test" of "historic significance," the totalitarian nation's state media reported Sunday. The new engine will be a "great leap forward" for Pyongyang's missile ambitions, the report said, noting that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claimed the world will "soon witness what eventful significance the great victory won today carries."

Pyongyang's announcement was timed to coincide with the meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Sunday. China is North Korea's only major ally, but neither man mentioned the test publicly.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.