South Korean military disputes North Korean claim of successful missile test-firing

Col. Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), speaks during a briefing at the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan District, Seoul, June 10. Yonhap

North Korea’s claim of a successful test-fire of a new missile is likely a “lie,” South Korea’s military said Tuesday, in the latest dismissal of the North’s weapons test assertions.

Earlier in the day, the North said it test-fired the new Hwasong-11Da-4.5 tactical ballistic missile capable of carrying a super-large warhead Monday to verify its flight stability and hit accuracy at the maximum range of 500 kilometers and the minimum range of 90 kilometers.

South Korea’s military earlier said it had detected two ballistic missile launches, with one of them flying some 600 km before landing in waters off the North’s eastern coast, and the other traveling only about 120 km, raising the possibility of a failure.

“(We) are conducting an analysis, while putting weight on the possibility that North Korea’s public report is a (form of) deception,” Col. Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), told a regular briefing.

Lee said the second missile flew abnormally and appeared to have fallen in a field in an uninhabited area close to Pyongyang.

“It is extremely rare to conduct a test-launch inland and there is a high possibility that its claim of a success is a lie,” he said.

North Korea has typically staged missile launches into waters off its eastern and western coasts.

Lee said that both missiles would have fallen inland if they flew the distances as reported by the North, based on the flight direction detected by the JCS.

North Korea has test-fired the Hwasong-11 series of short-range ballistic missiles over the years. The new Hwasong-11Da-4.5 missile is capable of carrying a 4.5 ton-class warhead, according to the North’s state media.

When asked whether the military assessed the latest launches to actually involve the new missile, Lee said an analysis is under way on various possibilities.

He said the military has assessed the North’s Hwasong-11 series to be able to carry a warhead of up to 2.5 tons, but noted that a 4.5-ton warhead is theoretically possible.

The remarks marked the South’s latest dismissal of the North’s claim of conducting a successful weapons test.

Last week, Pyongyang claimed it had successfully conducted a multiple warhead missile test, but the JCS dismissed it as “deception,” saying the launch ended in failure as the missile exploded in midair.

The JCS later released video footage of the missile exploding into fragments in the air captured with military thermal observation devices. (Yonhap)