This photo provided by the North Korean government, shows what it says the separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads at an undisclosed place in North Korea Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korea successfully tested its multiple-warhead missile capability, state media said on Thursday, while 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 says are in retaliation to similar missives sent northwards by activists in the South.

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.

The “separated mobile warheads were guided correctly to the three coordinate targets” during the test carried out on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, it said.

“The test is aimed at securing the MIRV capability,” KCNA added, referring to multiple independently targetable reentry 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.