North Korea claims it has successfully tested a missile aimed at securing multiple warhead capability, state media said Thursday, contradicting South Korea’s assessment that the test is believed to have ended in failure.
During the test conducted on Wednesday, the North’s Missile Administration “successfully carried out the separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
North Korea said the test was “aimed at securing the MIRV capability,” referring to independently targetable reentry vehicle technology that allows a single ballistic missile to deliver multiple warheads to different targets.
The announcement contradicts South Korea’s assessment that the missile exploded in mid-air.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday that the missile was launched from an area in or around Pyongyang at about 5:30 a.m. but exploded over the East Sea after flying about 250 kilometers.
A military source told Yonhap News Agency that North Korea may have test-fired a hypersonic missile.
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However, North Korea said the test “used the first-stage engine of a medium-range solid-fuel ballistic missile within a radius of 170-200 kilometers.”
The separated mobile warhead was correctly guided to the three target coordinates, KCNA said.
The effectiveness of the decoy separated from the missile was also verified by anti-air radar, he added.
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The test was supervised by Pak Jong-chon, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), and Kim Jong-sik, first vice director of a department of the WPK Central Committee, KCNA said.
Officials stressed that improving “the MIRV capability is a very important defense technology task and a top priority of the WPK Central Committee,” KCNA reported, indicating that it may also be a top priority for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The development of MIRV technology was included in North Korea’s five-year development plan, which was unveiled during the eighth WPK congress in January 2021.
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North Korea claimed that “the test was part of the normal administrative activities,” KCNA said.
This is the first time North Korea has openly revealed that it conducted a missile test to secure a multiple warhead capability.
South Korea, the United States and Japan condemned North Korea’s ballistic missile launch as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. (Yonhap/Z-3)
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