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Hyunmoo (Hangul: 현무) literally means "Guardian of the Northern Sky"

Hyunmoo III is a new cruise missile that is to be fielded with the military of Republic of Korea. It is designed by Agency for Defense Development (ADD).

Hyunmoo III bears no resemblence to the previous Hyunmoo long-range missiles, which were improved versions of Nike Hercules surface-to-air missiles that were converted into long-range high-speed surface-to-surface missiles in response to North Korea's Scud-B and Nodong-1 missile threats. Instead, the new missile's designs are strikingly similar to the Tomahawk cruise missiles used by the United States military.

Hyunmoo IIIA, which was nicknamed "Eagle-1" (독수리-1) during the testing, has a range of 500 km, while Hyunmoo IIIB, nicknamed "Eagle-2" (독수리-2), has a range of 1,000 km. Hyunmoo IIIC, or "Eagle-3" (독수리-3), will be capable of striking its target up to 1,500 km away. This is a significant improvement from Hyunmoo II, which only has a range of 180 km.

It is powered by a turbofan engine, much like other subsonic cruise missiles of its type, and has a payload of up to 500 kilograms. The guidance systems consist of Inertial Guidance System and Global Positioning System.

The maximum payload of the missile is rated at 500 kilograms of conventional explosive. However, the designers also made sure that the warhead can be swapped out with a 500 kiloton nuclear warhead in case of an emergency.

Ahn-Yong Bok class guided missile destroyers and KSS-III class submarines will be equipped with these missiles inside their Vertical Launching System.

South Korea is barred from producing a ballistic missile that is above a certain payload and range limit in accordance to Missile Technology Control Regime. Therefore, a heavy emphasis was put on for developing long-range cruise missiles by the South Korean government, as there is no restriction of payload amount and range limit set for them. With the introduction of Hyunmoo-III, which also has some advanced systems sometimes found on ICBMs, the Republic of Korea Army decided to create the Guided Missile Command in order to efficiently manage these missiles.