North Korea said this Thursday that it had successfully tested a “multiple mobile warhead” system in a test carried out on Wednesday and which, according to the South, ended with an explosion in the air.
North Korean state news agency KCNA said the North’s General Directorate of Missiles “successfully conducted a test of separation and guidance control of individual mobile warheads.”
According to KCNA, the test aimed to “guarantee the capabilities of MIRV”, a technology that allows attacking different targets with several warheads inside a single missile.
The agency claimed that the test was carried out using only the first stage of an intermediate-range ballistic missile that uses solid fuel “within a radius of 170 to 200 kilometers.”
Parameters that are ideal “to guarantee maximum security” and evaluate the reliability of the system, added KCNA, which guaranteed that the warheads were “correctly guided” towards three different targets.
The agency also said that an anti-aircraft radar verified the correct functioning of a decoy equipped with the projectile, used to attract enemy fire that could try to shoot down the missile.
A missile with multiple warheads was among the high-tech weapons systems that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un mentioned as goals during a single-party meeting in early 2021.
South Korea’s military said on Wednesday that the North had tested what appeared to be a hypersonic missile, but that the launch ended in failure.
The missile was fired from North Korean territory at around 5:30 am (9:30 pm on Tuesday in Lisbon) and South Korean and American intelligence services were carry out a detailed analysis of the launch, said the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) of South Korea, in a statement.
According to a JCS official, cited by the France-Presse news agency, Pyongyang appears to have tested a hypersonic missile, although the firing failed after a flight of around 250 kilometers that ended with an explosion.
The same source said that an unusual amount of smoke appeared to be coming from the missile, which raises the possibility of combustion problems.
The missile may have been propelled by solid fuel, said the official.
Japan also confirmed the launch and the Japanese coast guard reported that the missile ended up falling into the sea off Japan.
The launch came just hours after Pyongyang sent hundreds of new balloons loaded with garbage to South Korea, which led to the temporary suspension of departures and arrivals at Incheon airport, near Seoul.
North Korea’s last missile launch had taken place on May 30, when Seoul accused Pyongyang of firing a salvo of about ten short-range ballistic missiles.
