North Korea has successfully tested its multi-warhead missile capability, state media said on Thursday, as dozens of trash balloons from Pyongyang landed in South Korea.
Relations between the two Koreas are at their worst in years, with Pyongyang stepping up weapons testing and bombarding South Korea with garbage balloons it says are in response to similar messages sent to North Korea by South Korean activists.
The balloons forced the brief closure of Incheon airport, Seoul’s main hub, on Wednesday, and in response to the continued launches, South Korea has completely suspended a tension-reducing military pact and resumed propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts and live-fire exercises near the border.
North Korea’s state-run news agency Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Thursday that it had “successfully completed the separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads.”
It said that during the test conducted a day earlier “the separated mobile warheads were accurately guided towards three coordinated targets.”
“The test is aimed at securing the MIRV capability,” KCNA said, referring to multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle technology — or the ability to fire multiple warheads on a single ballistic missile.
South Korea’s military earlier said that the test by North Korea on Wednesday appeared to be a hypersonic missile, but the launch ended with an explosion in the air.
The official said the missile appeared to be emitting more smoke than usual, raising the possibility of a combustion problem. He also said the missile was probably powered by solid propellants.
According to KCNA, the test was carried out “using the first stage engine of an intermediate-range solid-fuel ballistic missile with a range of 170-200 kilometers (105 to 124 miles).”
“The effectiveness of the decoy weapon separated from the missile was also confirmed by anti-aircraft radar,” it said.
Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said acquiring multi-warhead missile technology is the ultimate goal for countries seeking ICBM-level missiles to carry nuclear weapons.
He told AFP that North Korea appeared to have been “testing this type of technology in a phased manner over a long period of time.”
“It appears they are making technological advancements in the early development stages of multi-warhead missiles.”
Balloon attack
For three consecutive days, North Korea has launched hundreds of garbage balloons towards the South as part of a retaliatory propaganda campaign.
Seoul’s military said about 70 balloons had been brought down by Thursday morning, mainly in northern Gyeonggi Province and the Seoul area, with the contents found to be non-hazardous.
“It weighs about 10 kilograms (22 pounds), so there could be a risk if the balloon descends too quickly,” it said, adding that the military was prepared to respond.
It said the response to the latest balloons would be “flexible depending on the strategic and operational situation. This depends on North Korea’s actions.”
South Korea’s Marine Corps resumed live-fire exercises on islands near the western inter-Korean border on Wednesday, the first such drills since a 2018 tension-reducing military pact with North Korea was completely suspended this month.
South Korea and the United States also held joint air exercises on Wednesday involving about 30 aircraft, including Washington’s advanced stealth fighter jets, the F-22 Raptor.
President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday visited a US aircraft carrier that arrived in South Korea this week for joint trilateral military exercises aimed at countering North Korean threats.
The exercise, which will run from Thursday to Saturday, will involve Washington’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, Tokyo’s guided missile destroyer JS Atago and Seoul’s KF-16 fighter jets, among other aircraft.
Pyongyang has regularly criticised such drills as invasion rehearsals
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