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North Korea said it has developed the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile, signalling the country may now have the ability to launch a nuclear attack against the United States.

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South Korea and the U.S. military have been divided over whether North Korea could shrink a warhead sufficiently to fit it on a nuclear-tipped missile. A spokesman at the National Defense Commission in Pyongyang said the military has mastered the engineering and will diversify its nuclear weapons, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday.

North Korea has successfully detonated three nuclear devices at a test site and has been improving the range of its ballistic missiles in defiance of United Nations sanctions over its weapons program. The U.S., China and South Korea have been unable to convince the Kim Jong Un regime to return to disarmament talks, and there are signs that North Korea is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal.

The announcement comes weeks after the country released video of Kim watching what the official media said was the launch of a ballistic missile from a submarine. U.S. and South Korean officials have questioned the veracity of the test, with Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min Seok saying on May 11 that the North was still likely years away from being able to master a submarine missile launch.