SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea successfully tested its multiple-warhead missile capability, state media said yesterday, as dozens more trash-laden balloons sent by Pyongyang landed in the South.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with Pyongyang ramping up weapons testing while bombarding the South with balloons full of trash it said are in retaliation to similar missives sent northwards by activists in the South.
The balloons briefly forced Incheon Airport to close on Wednesday and, in response to the successive launches, South Korea has fully suspended a tension-reducing military treaty and re-started propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts and live-fire drills near the border.
North Korea claimed it had “successfully conducted the separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads”, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said yesterday.
The “separated mobile warheads were guided correctly to the three coordinate targets” during the test carried out on Wednesday, it said.
“The test is aimed at securing the MIRV capability,” KCNA added, referring to multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle technology – the ability to fire multiple warheads on a single ballistic missile.
South Korea’s military had said the North’s test on Wednesday appeared to be of a hypersonic missile, but that the launch ended in a mid-air explosion.
More smoke than usual appeared to emanate from the missile, raising the possibility of combustion issues, a South Korean military official said, adding it may have been powered by solid propellants.
According to KCNA, the test “was carried out by use of the first-stage engine of an intermediate-range solid-fuel ballistic missile within a 170-200 kilometre radius”.
“The effectiveness of a decoy separated from the missile was also verified by anti-air radar,” it said.
Acquiring multiple-warhead missile technology is an ultimate goal for nations seeking ICBM-level missiles to carry nuclear warheads, said senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification Hong Min.
It appears the North is “testing such technology step by step over the long haul”, he told AFP.
“They appear to be making technological advancements in the early development stages of multiple-warhead missiles.”
North Korea has floated hundreds of trash-carrying balloons southward for three consecutive days in a tit-for-tat propaganda campaign.
Seoul’s military said around 70 balloons had landed by yesterday morning with the contents found not to be hazardous.
“The payload is about 10 kilogrammes, so there is a risk if the balloons descend rapidly,” it said, adding the military was ready to respond.
