Pyongyang on Friday hailed the successful test of a new type of surface-to-ship cruise missile, which it said was designed to hit “any enemy group of battleships” that threatened North Korea.
The launch Thursday — the North’s fifth weapons test in a month — was overseen by leader Kim Jong-Un, the State-run Korean Central News Agency reported, and came less than a week after the United Nations tightened sanctions against the Stalinist regime.
“The launched cruise rockets accurately detected and hit the floating targets on the East Sea of Korea,” KCNA said, referring to the Sea of Japan — where two US aircraft carriers were carrying out naval manoeuvres last week.
The USS Carl Vinson and the USS Ronald Reagan led the three-day exercises that ended June 3, with a total of a dozen US ships participating along with two Japanese vessels, in a show of force directed at North Korea.
The US has stepped up its muscle-flexing in the region, with a US nuclear submarine, the 6,900-ton USS Cheyenne, whose home port is Pearl Harbor, also arriving in the South Korean port of Busan Tuesday.
North Korea has ordered three ballistic missile launches, a surface-to-air missile, and now yesterday’s cruise missile tests since South Korea’s new President Moon Jae-in took power in early May. The short range missiles flew some 200 kilometres (124 miles) which is an improvement on a 2015 test, when a North Korean surface-to-ship cruise missile flew only 100 kilometres, said Korea Defence Forum analyst Shin Jong-Woo.