North Korea fires multiple cruise missiles - South Korea

SEOUL: North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles off its west coast, South Korea’s military said on Friday, the fourth time in just over a week Pyongyang has launched such missiles.

The South’s military said the launch took place at 11 a.m. (0200 GMT) but did not provide further details.

North Korea has called them “strategic” cruise missiles, indicating they may be nuclear-capable weapons.

Earlier this week, it said it had tested its new submarine-launched cruise missiles (SLCM) with leader Kim Jong Un on site to supervise.

On January 29, North Korea tested its new strategic cruise missiles for the second time in a week, calling it a newly developed submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM), accelerating its navy’s nuclear armament, state media reported on Monday.

Read more: North Korea tests submarine-launched cruise missiles, KCNA says

Leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test of the missile, called “Pulhwasal-3-31,” which is identical to the strategic cruise missiles that the North said last week were under development.

State news agency KCNA and official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the missiles flew above the sea off the country’s east coast for 7,421 seconds and 7,445 seconds and hit an unspecified island target, indicating the flight time exceeded two hours.

Kim called the test a success, KCNA said, “which is of strategic significance in carrying out the plan…for modernizing the army which aims at building a powerful naval force.”