MIRV: Did North Korea succeed in firing a new missile?

A weapons test this week has become the latest point of contention between North and South Korea, with Pyongyang saying they fired an advanced multiple warhead missile and Seoul accusing them of lying.

Hours after North Korean state media lauded the “success” of their test and ran pictures as proof on Thursday, the South called it “deception and exaggeration” and released their own evidence pointing towards failure.

Analysts meanwhile remain uncertain about the truth of the North’s claims.

The dispute underscores the complexities of verifying North Korea’s weapons development, which continues to advance despite severe international sanctions.

If North Korea’s latest claims are true, it would represent significant progress in their missile programme.

Multiple warhead missiles are difficult to defend against and the technology is challenging to develop. Currently only the US – which first developed it in the 1960s – as well as the UK, France, Russia and China are known to have these capabilities.

Pyongyang is now trumpeting that they are a step closer to achieving it as well.

For some time now, experts have floated the possibility of North Korea eventually developing MIRV capabilities, external.

MIRV stands for multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle. The technology involves attaching several warheads to a single missile that would separate after launch. The warheads would then be powered by their own rockets to hit various targets.

They can be released at different speeds and in multiple directions, allowing them to hit targets hundreds of kilometres apart from one another. This is what makes these weapons particularly efficient.

Pyongyang said on Thursday that it had “successfully conducted the separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads” the day before. The weapon, it said, used the first-stage engine of an intermediate-range solid-fuel ballistic missile, and deployed three warheads plus a decoy.

The missile travelled a “shortened range” of 170 to 200km (105 to 124 miles) to ensure safety and measure the flights of the warheads, said state media. The warheads were each “guided correctly” to their targets while anti-air radar found the decoy had effectively deployed as well.

The test was of “great significance in bolstering” their missile forces and was aimed at “securing the MIRV capability”, which has been set as a top priority.