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Park Chan-kyong

South Korea has dismissed the North’s claim of a successful missile test aimed at developing multiple warhead capabilities, saying Pyongyang is covering up a disastrous launch failure after the rocket exploded.
But analysts argue the South may have misinterpreted the test, with one suggesting Seoul “might have mistaken” the payload module deploying warheads for the missile itself exploding.
North Korean state media described Wednesday’s launch as a successful “separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads”.
It claimed the test aimed to advance the development of MIRV technology needed to enable multiple warheads from a single launch.
The announcement contradicts South Korea’s assessment that the suspected hypersonic missile, launched from Pyongyang, blew up mid-flight after travelling some 250km.
“North Korea’s missile launched yesterday exploded in an early stage of the flight,” Colonel Lee Sung-jun, spokesman for Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday.
“North Korea failed in its last space rocket launch [in May] and failed again yesterday, and we believe that there is a motive to cover these up,” he said, adding both South Korea and the United States stood by their assessment that the launch was a failure.

Seoul’s assessment also differed slightly from the analysis by Japan’s Defence Ministry, which said the ballistic missile was estimated to have flown more than 200km at a maximum altitude of about 100km before crashing into the sea.
The North said the test used “the first-stage engine of an intermediate-range solid-fuel ballistic missile within a 170km-200km radius”, which is favourable for measuring the flight characteristics of the MIRV.
The MIRV was accurately guided to three target coordinates, it claimed.
Its Missile General Bureau “successfully conducted” a test of manoeuvrable warheads’ separation and guidance, which was “of great significance in achieving the goal of upgrading missile technology”, mouthpiece newspaper Rodong Sinmun said.
The goal of the test was “to ensure the capability of destroying different targets with multiple warheads”, it said.
However, experts argue that further validation is needed, noting that the North has a track record of exaggerating military technology advances and manipulating pictures of missile launches.
“Barring such an alteration of photos, these pictures published by North Korean media appear to back up their allegations that the test was for verifying technology needed for a missile carrying multiple warheads and decoys”, Lee Il-woo, a senior researcher at the Korea Defence Network think tank, told This Week in Asia.
“The South might have mistaken the separation of multiple warheads and decoys from the payload module as a mid-flight explosion of a hypersonic ballistic missile.”

Such a low-flying missile carrying multiple warheads and decoys could pose serious threats to US aircraft carriers operating near the Korean peninsula, he said.
He noted that the test had occurred as a US aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea ahead of a three-way military drill with Japan.
The development of MIRV technology, crucial for evading missile interception, was one of the stated goals in North Korea’s five-year military build-up plan announced in 2021.
Chang Young-keun, a missile scientist at the Research Institute for National Security Strategy, said the missile test was not undertaken at high enough altitudes to ensure guidance and re-entry capabilities for intercontinental ballistic missiles.
“The primary objective appears to be to verifying guidance control systems” of a post boost vehicle, he told This Week in Asia. Such vehicles deploy multiple warheads and decoys after the main booster phases.


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South Korea

War of words erupts over North Korea’s multi-warhead missile test claims

A photo released by North Korean state media on Wednesday shows the missile being launched. Photo: KCNA/via EPA-EFE

A photo released by North Korean state media shows what it says was a successful separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads. Photo: KCNA via KNS / AFP

North Koreans are seen near the border with South Korea from an observation point in Paju on Thursday. Photo: AP

North Korea fuels bid for ‘new Cold War’ with failed missile launch after Russia treaty

An image released by North Korean state media shows Wednesday’s test of a missile guidance control and combat separation system. Photo: KCNA via Reuters

Contrails believed to be created by a North Korean hypersonic missile test are seen off Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, on Wednesday. Photo: AP

A Spike missile is launched toward the sea off Yeonpyeong Island bordering North Korea, in South Korea. Photo: EPA-EFE

An image released by North Korean state media shows Wednesday’s test of what it said was a missile guidance control and combat separation system. Photo: KCNA via Reuters 

South Korean soldiers check a balloon carrying garbage, presumably sent by North Korea, that was found in Seoul this month. Photo: EPA-EFE

A rally at the Mayday Stadium in Pyongyang on Tuesday to mark the “Day of Struggle Against US imperialism”, on the 74th anniversary of the Korean war. Photo: AFP

North Korea fires missile after Kim Jong-un’s sister slams ‘false rumour’ of sending weapons to Russia

A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea’s missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea on Friday. Photo: AP

US to deploy new mid-range missile system in Asia-Pacific by end of year, top general says

A Tomahawk cruise missile is seen being fired from a US guided-missile destroyer. Typhon launchers are designed to fire either Tomahawk missiles or the US Navy’s Standard Missile 6. Photo: US Navy via AP

General Charles Flynn, the commanding general of the US Army Pacific, speaks at Vandal Training Center in Camp Humphreys in South Korea. Photo: EPA-EFE

Russia gifts North Korea ‘battlefield laboratory’ for weapons tests by using its missiles against Ukraine

The North Korean military test-fires projectiles during a firing drill last month in this picture released on March 19 by Pyonygang’s official Korean Central News Agency. Photo: KCNA via Reuters

North Korea says it test-fired new solid-fuel hypersonic missile

A picture released by North Korea’s officials Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday shows the test-fire of what it said was a “Hwasong-16B” hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile. Photo: KCNA/dpa

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attends a missile launch at an unknown location in North Korea on Tuesday. Photo: KCNA via Reuters

Kim watches the first test-firing of a “Hwasongpho-16B” missile from the suburbs of Pyongyang in North Korea. Photo: KCNA via KNS / AFP

This Week in Asia

Politics

News

Asia

East Asia

Seoul says the test ended in a mid-air explosion, differing from Japan’s analysis and contradicting the North’s claims of MIRV success


Seoul says the test ended in a mid-air explosion, differing from Japan’s analysis and contradicting the North’s claims of MIRV success.
