SEOUL: North Korea said on Thursday it had successfully tested a multi-warhead missile in the first known launch of a developmental weapon coveted by leader Kim Jong Un to overwhelm US and South Korean missile defences.
South Korea quickly dismissed the claim as deception to cover up a failed launch.
North Korea’s state media said the launch on Wednesday tested the separation and guidance control of individual mobile warheads to ensure the capability of the Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles.
It said the separated warheads “were guided correctly to the three coordinate targets” and a decoy that separated from the missile was verified by radar.
If confirmed, it would be North Korea’s first public launch event related to the development of a multi-warhead missile, though at a preliminary stage.
South Korea’s military said later on Thursday that a joint analysis by South Korean and US authorities assessed that the North Korean missile launch failed.
Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung Joon told reporters that the separation of warheads in MIRV tests happens in descending stages but the North Korean missile exploded in the initial stage of its flight.
He said North Korean photos of the launch showed a weapon similar to a liquid-fuel Hwasong-17 ICBM that the country test-fired in March 2023.
The South Korean military’s earlier assessment on Wednesday was that a suspected solid-fuelled hypersonic missile was launched and exploded off the North’s east coast, scattering fragments in the water.
It said it detected more smoke than normal launches, suggesting a possible combustion issue caused by an engine fault.
A multi-warhead missile was among the high-tech weapons systems Kim cited on his wish list during a ruling party meeting in early 2021, along with spy satellites, solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons and submarine-launched nuclear missiles.
North Korea has since performed a series of tests to develop such weapons systems.
“I had been anticipating a MIRV test for some time now, as this was one of the last remaining items on Kim Jong Un’s modernisation wish list from the 8th Party Congress back in January 2021,” said Ankit Panda, a senior analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Panda said Wednesday’s test appeared to be an initial evaluation of some of the key subsystems to develop a workable MIRV.
He expects successive tests of the technology to follow, leading up to a launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on a lofted trajectory. Panda said it appeared that “South Korea misinterpreted the nature of this test initially”.