Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KNCA) reported on Sunday that North Korea conducted a strategic cruise missile test.
According to the report, the country’s leader Kim Jong Un monitored the test. North Korea’s deterrence means are being “more and more deeply perfected,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
The sea-to-surface strategic guided cruise missiles traveled 1,500 kilometers (about 932 miles), KCNA said.
North Korea fired “multiple” cruise missiles from an inland area toward waters off its west coast at about 4 p.m. local time (0700 UTC/GMT) on Saturday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
It said Seoul is prepared to “forcefully” counter any provocations by Pyongyang, combined with its military alliance with the US.
The future of US-North Korea relations
This was Pyongyang’s first missile test since US President Donald Trump began his second term on Monday.
In an interview broadcast Thursday, Trump said he planned to restore ties with Kim, calling the North Korean leader a “smart guy.” During Trump’s first term, the two met on three occasions.
Meanwhile, in a separate KCNA report on Sunday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry condemned Washington and Seoul for holding joint military exercises in recent days.
The statement said North Korea should “counter the US with the toughest retaliatory measures” as long as Washington denies Pyongyang’s “sovereignty and security interests”.
Joint military exercises between the US and South Korea regularly draw angry reactions from North Korea, which accuses Washington and Seoul of staging the drills as an excuse for an invasion.
ess/wd (Reuters, AFP)