Hyunmu 3B is supposed to have entered service in 2009. The 3C was reportedly deployed in 2010 and, according to a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable, was tested at least as early as 2006. The short deployment lag behind the 3B, just one year, suggests that the 3C is closely related to its immediate forebear, which the Yonhap news agency has described as an upgrade of the 3A. A test of the 3B was revealed in 2006.
Almost all of Japan and many of China's largest cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, are within 1,500 km of South Korea, indicating the regional capability that Seoul is seeking with the cruise missile program.
Hyunmu 3C weighs 1.5 tons, is 6 meters (19.7 ft.) long and 53-60 cm in diameter, carries a 450-kg warhead and flies at slightly less than Mach 1, Chosun Ilbo reported in 2010, quoting a military officer. It is supposed to have an accuracy of 1-2 meters while Hyunmu 3B is accurate to 5 meters with terrain-comparison guidance. The 3C uses GPS for guidance, the ministry tells KBS television. Conceivably, both technologies could be employed.
Like the Tomahawk, Hyunmu 3C has reportedly been designed for launch from submarines and surface ships, but South Korea has deployed a naval land-attack missile called Cheonryong that has a range of more than 500 km; it may be a modified 3A.
South Korea will deploy a supersonic successor to its Haeseong 1 ship-to-ship missile under the designation Haeseong 2, a foreign ministry official has revealed. That missile was tested as early as 2007, according to a leaked cable. South Korea told the U.S. then that the weapon had a mass at the beginning of its cruise phase of 1.28 metric tons, including 270 kg of fuel, and an empty mass of about 1 ton. The engine had a thrust of 800 lb. and burned 0.8 lb. of fuel per lb.-thrust per hour.
South Korea's great effort in cruise land-attack missiles may stem from treaty limits on the range of its ballistic missiles. Its first ballistic bombardment missile was Hyunmu 1 of the 1980s, derived from the U.S. Nike-Hercules surface-to-air missile, but Hyunmu 2 is quite different. Hyunmu 2 (perhaps Hyunmu 2A) entered service in 2008 and 2B in 2009.
“Hyunmu” is the name of a mythical creature that defends the northern skies.