North Korea said Thursday that it successfully conducted a test involving a missile with multiple warheads.
The “individual mobile warhead separation and guidance control test” was carried out Wednesday by the North’s Missile Administration, the Korean Central News Agency reported.
North Korea said the missile test was aimed at achieving MIRV (multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle) capability, allowing a single missile to deliver multiple warheads to different targets.
However, it contradicted South Korea’s assessment that the missile exploded in mid-air.
Officials from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that the missile was launched from an area near Pyongyang around 5.30 a.m. but exploded over the East Sea after flying about 250 kilometers (155 miles).
A military source suggested that North Korea might have tested a hypersonic missile.
However, North Korea said the test used the first-stage engine of an intermediate-range solid-fuel ballistic missile within a 170-200 kilometer radius.
The separated mobile warheads were guided correctly to three target coordinates, and the effectiveness of a decoy separated from the missile was also verified by anti-air radar, Pyongyang said.