North Korea’s Kim Jong-un ‘guides’ submarine-launched cruise missile test
- Two Pulhwasal-3-31 missiles ‘flew in the sky above the East Sea … to hit the island target’, state media reported, adding Kim had ‘guided’ the launch
- The latest tension-raising move by the nuclear-armed state comes as North Korea’s exact sea-based launch capabilities remain unclear
Pyongyang has accelerated weapons testing in the new year, including tests of what it called an “underwater nuclear weapon system” and a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile.
The two Pulhwasal-3-31 missiles “flew in the sky above the East Sea … to hit the island target” on Sunday, state-run news agency KCNA reported, adding that Kim had “guided” the launch.
The Pulhwasal-3-31 is a new generation of strategic cruise missiles that Pyongyang said it had only tested for the first time on Wednesday, firing multiple missiles toward the Yellow Sea.
Unlike their ballistic counterparts, the testing of cruise missiles is not banned under current UN sanctions against Pyongyang.
Cruise missiles tend to be jet-propelled and fly at a lower altitude than more sophisticated ballistic missiles, making them harder to detect and intercept.
KCNA reported the “submarine-launched strategic cruise missiles” (SLCM) were in the air for 7,421 seconds and 7,445 seconds – around two hours – but did not say how far they flew or whether they had been launched from above or below the water.