This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
North Korea successfully conducted a missile test aimed at securing multiple warhead capability, its state media reported on Thursday, a day after South Korea said the test had ended in failure when the ballistic missile exploded in mid-air.
The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said its Missile Administration “successfully conducted the separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads,” during the Wednesday test.
The test was “aimed at securing the MIRV capability,” KCNA reported.
MIRV, or multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle technology, allows a single ballistic missile to deliver multiple warheads to different targets.
The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Wednesday that North Korea test fired a ballistic missile over the sea off its east coast but it exploded in the air soon after the launch.
It added the missile was launched from an area in or near Pyongyang at around 5:30 a.m. but exploded after flying some 250 km (155 miles).
A JCS official told reporters that the military was considering the possibility that North Korea had launched a hypersonic missile, adding that smoke appeared to emanate from the missile more than on previous test launches.
However, North Korea claimed the test “used the first-stage engine of an intermediate-range solid-fuel ballistic missile within a 170-200 km radius.”
The KCNA did not refer to the South Korean assessment but said the separated mobile warheads were guided correctly to three target coordinates. The effectiveness of a decoy separated from the missile was also verified by anti-air radar, it added.
Pak Jong Chon, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, and Kim Jong Sik, first vice department director of the WPK Central Committee, oversaw the test, according to the KCNA.
“The MIRV capability is a very important defense technological task and a top priority of the WPK Central Committee,” KCNA cited officials as saying.
North Korea included developing MIRV technology in a five-year development plan announced in January 2021.
South Korea’s military on Thursday dismissed the North’s claim of success, reaffirming its assessment the missile exploded in the air.
“North Korea’s missile launched yesterday exploded in an early stage of the flight,” Col. Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson of the JSC, told reporters in a briefing. “North Korea made a different announcement this morning but we believe that this is merely a method of deception and exaggeration.”
“North Korea failed in its last space rocket launch and failed again yesterday, and we believe that there is a motive to cover these up,” he added, noting that both South Korea and the United States assessed Wednesday’s launch as a failure.
