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, AFP reported.
“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 on naval maneuvers last week.
The USS Carl Vinson and the USS Ronald Reagan led the three-day exercises that ended on 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 on Tuesday.
North Korea’s top newspaper Rodong Sinmun ran a front-page photo of a beaming Kim surrounded by smiling generals in uniform, with further pictures inside apparently showing the cruise missiles being launched from the back of a tank-like vehicle, and hitting ships at sea.
North Korea has ordered three ballistic missile launches, a surface-to-air missile and now Thursday’s cruise missile tests since South Korea’s new President Moon Jae-in took power in early May.
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