North Korea carried out a test launch of strategic cruise missiles in the Yellow Sea this week, in a drill Pyongyang yesterday said was aimed at showing off its “counterattack” capabilities.
Leader Kim Jong-un was at the exercise, which took place on Wednesday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The missiles flew for 130 minutes and travelled a 1,587-kilometer-long trajectory before they “precisely hit the targets,” KCNA said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Pyongyang said the drills were aimed at warning nuclear-armed North Korea’s enemies of its “counterattack capability in any space and the readiness of its various nuke operation means.”
Images in North Korean state media showed Kim, flanked by officials, sporting binoculars. A missile is also shown destroying a small building, which erupts in flames.
Attending the drill, Kim said it was the responsibility of North Korea’s nuclear forces to “defend the national sovereignty and security.”
“Powerful striking ability” served as “the most perfect deterrence and defense,” KCNA reported Kim as saying.
Pyongyang accused North Korea’s enemies of “seriously violating the security environment” as well as “fostering and escalating” confrontation.
KCNA did not say where the test took place, but specialist website NK News said it likely took place near the city of Nampho, about 130km from the border with South Korea.
Seoul’s military said it had “tracked and monitored North Korea’s launch of several cruise missiles” on Wednesday.
“Our military is closely monitoring various North Korean trends... while maintaining the ability and posture to overwhelmingly respond to any provocation,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
University of North Korean Studies president Yang Moo-jin said the test could have served as a “stepping stone to check the readiness for nuclear operation.”
Pyongyang could “gradually increase the level and frequency of provocations, Yang said.
Ahn Chan-il, a defector and researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, said this week’s launch could be a bid for attention from the US president.
“North Korea wants to have a summit with Trump this year, so this could be their signal to press the new US president by test-launching a strategic weapon,” he said.
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