North Korea successfully test-fired a new long-range cruise missile on Saturday and Sunday, the state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Monday.
The cruise missiles “traveled for 7,580 seconds along an oval and pattern-8 flight orbits in the air above the territorial land and waters” in North Korea and “hit targets 1,500 km [930 miles] away,” according to KCNA.
North Korea’s testing of cruise missiles “usually generate less interest than ballistic missiles because they are not explicitly banned under U.N. Nations Security Council Resolutions,” Reuters noted Monday.
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency on Monday similarly described the cruise missile tests as “a low-level provocation,” as they stop short of violating U.N. sanctions on North Korea meant to deter the country’s nuclear proliferation.
KCNA referred to the new cruise missile as “a strategic weapon,” on Monday, a term which may be interpreted as “a common euphemism for [a] nuclear-capable system,” according to Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
This combination of photos provided by the North Korean government on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021, shows long-range cruise missiles tests held on Sept. 11 -12, 2021 in an undisclosed location of North Korea. North Korea says it successfully test fired what it described as newly developed long-range cruise missiles over the weekend, its first known testing activity in months that underscored how it continues to expand its military capabilities amid a stalemate in nuclear negotiations with the United States. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: “KCNA” which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
“This would be the first cruise missile in North Korea to be explicitly designated a ‘strategic’ role,” Panda told Reuters on September 13.
While cruise missiles are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, it remains unclear whether Pyongyang has mastered the technology necessary to construct warheads small enough to be carried by a cruise missile.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Monday it was in the process of carrying out an in-depth analysis of North Korea’s test-firings over the weekend and that it was conducting the investigation together with U.S. intelligence authorities. JCS refused to confirm details of the probe, “including where the test was conducted and if they detected the launches in advance,” according to Yonhap.
“The development of the long-range cruise missile, a strategic weapon of great significance in meeting the key target of the five-year plan for the development of the defense science and the weapon system… has been pushed forward according to the scientific and reliable weapon system development process for the past two years,” KCNA said of the cruise missile tests on September 11 and 12.
The missile launches over the weekend mark Pyongyang’s third major missile test of 2021. North Korea fired two cruise missiles off its west coast on March 21, according to South Korea’s JCS. Pyongyang launched two ballistic missiles into the East Sea, or Sea of Japan, just four days later. The missiles fired by North Korea on March 25 were believed to be upgraded versions of the country’s KN-23 Iskander-type missile.