Updated July 2, 2024, 05:28 a.m. ET.
North Korea has successfully tested a “new-type” of tactical ballistic missile that can fire a 4.5 ton “super-large” warhead up to 500 km (311 miles), the North’s state-run media reported on Tuesday but South Korea’s military doubted that the announcement was true, its media reported.
The missile, the Hwasongpho-11 Da-4.5, was test fired on Monday, and the result of the test was “of great significance,” said the North’s Korean Central News Agency.
“The test-fire was conducted with a missile tipped with a simulated heavy warhead to verify flight stability and hit accuracy at the maximum range of 500 km [311 miles] and the minimum range of 90 km [55 miles],” the news agency reported.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, or JCS, said on Monday North Korea fired two ballistic missiles over the sea off its east coast early that day but the second one appeared to have flown abnormally and fallen to the ground.
Col. Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson for the JCS, told a regular briefing that South Korea was analyzing the North’s launches but it suspected the North Korean announcement was not true, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
"[We] are conducting an analysis, while putting weight on the possibility that North Korea's public report is a [form of] deception," said Lee.
"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."
Lee said the South Korean military has assessed that the North's Hwasong-11 rocket could carry a warhead of up to 2.5 tons, but noted that a 4.5-ton warhead was theoretically possible.
The North Korean test came shortly after South Korea, the United States and Japan concluded joint military exercises.
The North, which regards such exercises as preparations by the U.S. and its allies to invade the country, condemned the exercise on Sunday and vowed to take “offensive and overwhelming countermeasures” to protect its sovereignty.
The North Korean news agency said Monday’s test was “part of the regular activities of the administration and its affiliated defense science institutes.”
North Korea would test the Hwasongpho-11 Da-4.5 this month to verify its flight characteristics, accuracy “and explosion power of super-large warhead at the medium range of 250 km [155 miles],” the news agency said.
Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.
Updated with South Korean reaction.