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North Korea test-fires long-range cruise missile: KCNA

2021-09-13 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-亚洲原网页

SEOUL (REUTERS, BLOOMBERG) - North Korea carried out successful long-range cruise missile tests over the weekend, its state media, KCNA, said on Monday (Sept 13), amid a protracted standoff with the United States over denuclearisation.

The missiles flew 1,500km (930 miles) before hitting their targets and falling into the country's territorial waters during the tests held on Saturday and Sunday, KCNA said.

It was seen as the North’s first missile launch after it tested a new tactical short-range ballistic missile in March.

North Korea also conducted a cruise missile test just hours after US President Joe Biden took office in late January.

The development of the missiles provides "strategic significance of possessing another effective deterrence means for more reliably guaranteeing the security of our state and strongly containing the military maneuvers of the hostile forces," KCNA said. "In this course, detailed tests of missile parts, scores of engine ground thrust tests, various flight tests, control and guidance tests, warhead power tests etc were conducted with success.”

This would be the first cruise missile in North Korea to be explicitly designated a ‘strategic’ role,” said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “This is a common euphemism for nuclear-capable system.”

It is unclear whether North Korea has mastered the technology needed to build warheads small enough to be carried on a cruise missile, but leader Kim Jong Un said earlier this year that developing smaller bombs is a top goal.

South Korea’s military did not disclose whether it had detected the tests, but said on Monday it was conducting a detailed analysis in cooperation with the United States.

Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Workers’ Party’s official newspaper, ran photos of the new long-range cruise missile flying and being fired from a transporter-erector-launcher.

The missile is a strategic weapon that has been developed over the past two years and a key element of a five-year plan outlined in January to advance defence science and arsenals, KCNA said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not appear to have attended the test, with KCNA saying Pak Jong Chon, a member of the Workers’ Party’s powerful politburo and a secretary of its central committee, oversaw it.

The reclusive North has long accused the United States and South Korea of "hostile policy" towards Pyongyang.

Talks aimed at dismantling the North's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes in return for US sanctions relief have stalled since 2019.

The unveiling of the test came just a day before chief nuclear negotiators from the United States, South Korea and Japan meet in Tokyo to explore ways to break the standoff with North Korea.

China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, is also scheduled to visit Seoul on Tuesday for talks with his counterpart, Chung Eui-yong.

Biden’s administration has said it is open to diplomacy to achieve North Korea’s denuclearisation, but has shown no willingness to ease sanctions.

Last week, North Korea staged its first military-style parade since Joe Biden became US president, with leader Kim Jong Un presiding over an event where displays of his state’s weaponry were scaled down from previous exhibitions.

There were no ballistic missiles, which are faster and harder to intercept than cruise missiles, on show. South Korea’s defence ministry declined to comment on the news.

Sung Kim, the US envoy for North Korea, said in August in Seoul that he was ready to meet with North Korean officials “anywhere, at any time.” A reactivation of inter-Korean hotlines in July raised hopes for a restart of the negotiations, but the North stopped answering calls as annual South Korea-US military exercises began last month, which Pyongyang had warned could trigger a security crisis.