North denies missile launch failed, claims successful test of MIRV technology

North Korea claimed on Thursday that the ballistic missile launch meant to test multiple warhead capabilities carried out Wednesday was a success, contradicting South Korea’s assessment that the test failed.

A missile test conducted by North Korea is seen in this file photo provided by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 27. [YONHAP]

North Korea claimed on Thursday that the ballistic missile launch meant to test multiple warhead capabilities carried out Wednesday was a success, contradicting South Korea’s assessment that the test failed.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday that the North’s Missile Administration “successfully conducted the separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads” during the test Wednesday.

The KCNA said that the test was aimed at “securing MIRV capability,” referring to a technology that allows a single ballistic missile to aim at different targets with multiple warheads. MIRV stands for multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle technology.

This is the first time that North Korea has announced that it has successfully conducted a missile launch test to secure multiple warhead capabilities.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Wednesday that an unidentified missile was launched from the Pyongyang area at around 5:30 a.m. toward the East Sea but is assumed to have failed.

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” and that the separated mobile warheads were guided to three targets correctly, according to the KCNA report.

“The fact that this technology test can enter the full-scale phase has significance in strengthening our missile capabilities,” an official from the North’s Missile Administration is quoted as saying by the KCNA.

The test on Wednesday was overseen by Pak Jong-chon, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, and Kim Jong-sik, first vice department director of the WPK Central Committee.

“Improving the ability to destroy individual targets by mobile units is a very important national defense technology and a matter of utmost interest to the party Central Committee,” Kim was quoted as saying, suggesting that the test was of particular interest to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

In another statement released Thursday, North Korea demonstrated its increasingly close relationship with Russia by condemning Ukraine’s recent attack on Crimea with weapons provided by the United States, calling it “an inexcusable, hideous crime against humanity.”

Ukraine launched a strike on the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia, on Sunday using the U.S.-provided Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS.

“I vehemently denounce the recent case as a direct military attack on Russian territory and an inexcusable, hideous crime against humanity,” North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun-nam said in a statement carried by the KCNA.

Russia has claimed that the United States gave Ukraine intelligence support and strike targeting information. The United States, on the other hand, insists that Ukraine chooses which targets to attack on its own.

“The gravity of the issue is that, as claimed by Russian officials, the missiles fired by the Zelensky administration at civilians were U.S.-made, and the input of their coordinates was carried out by U.S. military experts," Kang said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Kang called the United States the “worst sponsor of terrorism.”

Following Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's June 19 summit in Pyongyang, North Korea has released several statements endorsing Russia's protracted war with Ukraine, characterizing it as a "legitimate act of self-defense."

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]