[ TODAY / AFP ] North Korea test-fires new ‘long-range cruise missile’: KCNA
North Korea test-fired a new “long-range cruise missile” over the weekend, state media reported Monday, calling it a “strategic weapon of great significance” amid a long standoff with the United States over its nuclear programme.
The test launches took place on Saturday and Sunday, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The missiles travelled 1,500 km (about 930 miles) flight paths — including figure-of-8 patterns — above North Korea and its territorial waters to hit their targets, according to KCNA.
Its report called the missile a “strategic weapon of great significance”, adding the tests were successful and it gave the country “another effective deterrence means” against “hostile forces”.
The North is under international sanctions for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, which it says it needs to defend against a US invasion.
But Pyongyang is not banned from developing cruise missiles, which it has tested previously.
Dr Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute for International Studies tweeted that the reported missiles would be capable of delivering a warhead against targets “throughout South Korea and Japan”.
“An intermediate-range land-attack cruise missile is a pretty serious capability for North Korea,” he added.
“This is another system that is designed to fly under missile defense radars or around them.”
The South’s military — normally the first source of information on the North’s missile test — had made no announcement of any launches over the weekend.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP: “Our military is conducting a detailed analysis under close cooperation between the South Korean and US intelligence agencies.”
The Pentagon did not immediately reply to a request for comment.