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SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claimed a key advance in ballistic missile technology and called for further missile and nuclear warhead tests “in a short time,” the latest in a string of recent threats aimed at creating fear of war in the U.S. and South Korea.
Mr. Kim observed a simulation of a ballistic missile warhead’s ability to withstand the heat and pressure of its descent to target, according to a report from the nation’s state news agency published Tuesday. The date of the test wasn’t given.
Photos carried on the front page of North Korea’s main newspaper showed Mr. Kim watching what the report called a warhead tip being blasted with heat at a test stand.
The simulation was successful, according to the report. Mr. Kim said it showed North Korea had mastered a significant technical step in developing an effective ballistic missile capability. He called for further field tests to improve Pyongyang’s nuclear missile threat.
Mr. Kim declared that “a nuclear warhead explosion test and a test-fire of several kinds of ballistic rockets able to carry nuclear warheads will be conducted in a short time to further enhance the reliance of nuclear attack capability,” according to the report.
There was no way to confirm North Korea’s claim of success in developing a warhead capable of surviving the heat and shocks of re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere when mounted on a long-range ballistic missile. But Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California, said it was generally assumed that Pyongyang had been working on the challenge for some time.
South Korea’s defense ministry disputed the claim of success. “What North Korea announced today is North Korea’s unilateral argument. According to our military’s judgement, North Korea hasn’t secured missile re-entry ability yet,” a spokesman for the ministry said at a news briefing.