North Korea fired several cruise missiles into the sea on Saturday (September 2), South Korea’s military said, aiming to extend its weapons testing activities in response to the US-South Korea military drills.
The missiles were detected early morning today by the South Korean military off the North’s West coast, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
According to the statement, the South Korean and US intelligence authorities were analysing details of the launches. The statement said that South Korea has boosted its surveillance posture and maintains a firm military readiness in close coordination with the United States.
The firing of missiles comes two days after the militaries of the US and South Korea wrapped up their 11-day training exercises that North Korea regards as a rehearsal for invasion. Washington and Seoul officials maintain their drills are defensive.
A day before the exercise ended, North Korea had fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea.
The North said it was separately holding a command post exercise aimed at rehearsing an occupation of South Korea's territory in the event of conflict.
On August 21, the day when the US-South Korean drills kicked off, North Korea's state media said its leader Kim Jong Un observed cruise missile launches. North Korea’s second attempt to put a military spy satellite in orbit failed on August 24, however, it said that it will go for the third attempt in October.
North Korea, since the start of 2022, has performed over 100 weapons tests with several of them being ballistic launches which are banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions. Though North Korea’s cruise missile tests aren't barred, they pose a threat to the rivals as they are designed to fly at a lower altitude to evade detection from the radars.
(With AP inputs)
