SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Thursday it conducted its first flight test of a new cruise missile as it expands its military capabilities amid rising tensions with the United States and its neighbors.
The report in state media came a day after South Korea's military said it had determined the North had fired multiple cruise missiles into waters off its west coast. No further details were initially provided about the number of rockets fired or their flight characteristics.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the Pulhwasal-3-31 missile was still in the development phase and the launch posed no threat to its neighbors. It described the missile as “strategic,” implying the intention to use it to equip nuclear weapons.
South Korean General Staff spokesman Lee Sung Joon said the missiles traveled a shorter distance than previous North Korean cruise missile launches, which he said suggests North Korea is trying to improve the performance of existing systems.
The cruise missile launches were North Korea's second known launch event this year, following the Jan. 14 test of the country's first intermediate-range solid-fuel ballistic missile in Japan and Guam.
Yang Uk, an analyst at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, said North Korea is trying to highlight its diversifying arsenal of nuclear-capable weapons to increase pressure on its rivals. However, the recent demonstrations of new weapons systems came amid a slowdown in testing of short-range ballistic missiles, which could indicate storage shortages as North Korea continues its alleged arms sales to Russia, Yang said.
U.S. and South Korean officials have accused North Korea of providing Russia with artillery shells, missiles and other supplies for its war in Ukraine, possibly in exchange for economic aid and military technology.
Kim, who traveled to a Russian space launch center in September for a summit with Putin, has taken aggressive steps to strengthen ties with Moscow as he tries to break out of isolation and join a united front against Washington.
Both Pyongyang and Moscow denied that North Korea was sending weapons to Russia.
North Korea's cruise missiles are part of its growing arsenal aimed at overwhelming missile defenses in South Korea and Japan. They add to the country's vast array of ballistic missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the U.S. mainland.
Although North Korea's cruise missile activities are not directly banned by UN sanctions, experts say these weapons may pose a serious threat to South Korea and Japan. They are designed to be harder to detect with radar, and North Korea claims they are nuclear capable and have a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles), a distance that would include U.S. military bases in Japan.
Since 2021, North Korea has conducted at least ten rounds of tests of so-called long-range cruise missiles, which can be fired from both land and sea.
Tensions in the region have increased in recent months as Kim continues to accelerate his weapons development and provocatively threatens a nuclear conflict with the United States and its Asian allies. In response, the United States, South Korea and Japan have expanded their joint military exercises, which Kim has condemned as rehearsals of invasion and used as a pretext to expand his military demonstrations.
There are concerns that Kim could exert pressure in the United States and South Korea in an election year.
South Korean experts and officials say Kim's weapons offensive has further strained a broken economy crippled by decades of mismanagement and U.S.-led sanctions over his nuclear ambitions.
In a separate report, KCNA said Kim criticized officials for failing to adequately provide “essential goods, including spices, food and consumer goods” to people in rural areas and less developed cities during a two-day ruling party meeting through Wednesday .
Kim called the meeting to discuss a 10-year project he announced last week to promote more balanced regional development, including a goal of building modern factories in every county nationwide.
Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press this week suggest North Korea demolished a giant arch in its capital that symbolized reconciliation with South Korea, a week after Kim held up decades-long hopes for a peaceful reunification with the war-torn South had given up the divided peninsula.
Last week, Kim called the Pyongyang memorial an “eyesore” and called for its removal. At the same time, he declared that the North would abandon its long-standing goals of peaceful unification with South Korea and ordered a rewrite of the North's constitution to define the South as its greatest monument to hostile foreign adversaries. He accused South Korea of acting as “high-profile stooges” of the Americans and repeated the threat that if provoked, he would use his nuclear weapons to destroy the South.
Analysts say North Korea could aim to weaken South Korea's voice in the regional nuclear standoff and eventually force direct deals with Washington to consolidate its nuclear status.
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