“The speed of China’s military build-up is ‘shocking’…it has surpassed the US and Russia”
“The atmosphere of sinful bureaucracy and failure hinders U.S. arms development”
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Hyun Yun-kyung = The second-in-command in the U.S. military ‘praised’ that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was able to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) after learning from repeated failures in missile development.
While it is known that China has recently conducted a test-fire of a supersonic missile, he warned that the speed of China’s military build-up is “stunning” and that the US could overtake China in military power at this rate.
[AFP 연합뉴스 자료사진. 재판매 및 DB 금지]
“Chairman Kim Jong-un is speeding up the development of weapons by learning lessons from a failed test,” said John Hyton, deputy chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a meeting with the U.S. Defense Correspondents on the 28th (local time), according to CNN.
He continued, “Chairman Kim Jong-un, unlike his father, instead of executing failed scientists and engineers, he encouraged development and taught them to learn from failure, and in the end they did it.”
“The world’s 118th-largest economy has developed an ICBM with a nuclear-capable capability,” he added, “because they understand the risks as they test and fail.”
Deputy Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Hyton, made a statement in the process of expressing concern that China and other rival countries are rapidly increasing their military power, but the United States is unable to do so due to bureaucracy and other factors.
“It’s appropriate to call China a ‘pacing threat,'” he said. “The speed at which China moves is so shocking.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin previously used the phrase “a pursuit threat to China”.
“If we don’t try to change, the speed and trajectory they are moving at will exceed Russia and the United States,” Hyton told reporters.
“The United States and our allies have to come together, not the United States,” he said, “because that can really change the ‘game’. “I think it will be fine for a long time,” he added.
Hyton’s remarks sparked arms race between the two countries, as China test-fired a hypersonic missile twice in July and August, and the US test-fired a hypersonic weapon a week ago but failed. It came out of overheating. Tensions between the two countries over Taiwan are also on the rise.
![Dongfeng-17, a hypersonic ballistic missile that was first unveiled at the Chinese National Day parade in October 2019.[신화 연합뉴스 자료사진. 재판매 및 DB 금지]](https://i0.wp.com/img2.yna.co.kr/etc/inner/KR/2021/10/29/AKR20211029060600009_02_i_P4.jpg?w=800&ssl=1)
Dongfeng-17, a hypersonic ballistic missile that was first unveiled at the Chinese National Day parade in October 2019.[신화 연합뉴스 자료사진. 재판매 및 DB 금지]
His superior, Marc Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also appeared on Bloomberg TV the day before and expressed great concern over China’s hypersonic missile test, calling it a “very significant technological event.”
“I don’t know if this is a ‘Sputnik moment’, but I think it’s very close,” Milley said, expressing caution in China’s advanced weapons development movement.
The Sputnik Moment comes from the fact that in October 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, which shocked the West, including the United States. The United States, which had been complacent with technological superiority, entered the space race in earnest from this time on.
Hyton, who will be retiring next month, also criticized the same day, saying, “Although we are making minor progress, the Pentagon is still incredibly bureaucratic and slow.” advised to do
He did not mention specific details about China’s hypersonic missile test this summer, but only said “there was one (supersonic) test, and I’m very concerned.”
Although he was wary of the pace of China’s military build-up, Hyton cited Russia as the most imminent threat to the United States. The reason was that Russia has deployed more than 1,500 nuclear weapons, but China has deployed only 20% of Russia’s nuclear weapons.
He also emphasized that the supersonic weapons and nuclear weapons that China is developing have only partly to do with Taiwan.
He noted that the US and China’s approaches to hypersonic weapon development are markedly different, he said.
He also criticized the US attitude, which defines failure as a bad thing, as a factor hindering the development of next-generation weapons.
ykhyun14@yna.co.kr
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