North Korea's Ballistic Missile Program: From Scud Imports to ICBM Tests

A timeline of Pyongyang's missile development from the 1970s-80s acquisition of Scud technology via Egypt and the Soviet bloc, through the 1998 Taepodong-1 overflight of Japan, the first nuclear test in 2006, the 2017 Hwasong-14/15 intercontinental-range launches that triggered a war-of-words with Washington, the 2019-2021 lull during diplomacy, and the post-2022 surge of record-setting test cadences including solid-fuel and hypersonic systems. Each launch, UN Security Council debate, sanctions round and summity attempt becomes a dated node in one continuous escalation-and-pause cycle. This timeline was generated automatically by TimeStrands AI from Wikipedia research. Facts are sourced; framing may be imperfect.