North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles into the West Sea on Friday, Seoul’s military said, continuing a fresh streak of weapons testing as Kim Jong Un’s regime ramps up “war preparations”.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military had “detected at around 11am (0200 GMT) the firing of multiple unidentified cruise missiles” into the sea off the country’s west coast.
The South Korean military has “stepped up surveillance in close coordination with the United States”, the JCS said in the statement.
The military is “closely monitoring for signs of additional activity” by the North Korean army, it said, adding they were “closely analysing” the launch.
The Friday launch comes three days after the nuclear-armed North conducted what it said was a test-fire of a strategic cruise missile.
On Sunday, Kim also oversaw the launch of two Pulhwasal-3-31s, a new type of strategic cruise missile, purportedly from a North Korean submarine.
Pyongyang has also claimed this month to have tested an “underwater nuclear weapon system” and a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile.
Unlike their ballistic counterparts, the testing of cruise missiles is not banned under current UN sanctions on Pyongyang.—AFP
