North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a test of “long-range strategic cruise missiles,” state media reported Thursday, in yet another sign that Pyongyang is increasingly deploying even more powerful missiles capable of delivering nuclear bombs to its neighbors.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that the test-firing had been “successfully conducted” on Wednesday and that the launches were “aimed at further enhancing the combat efficiency and might of the long-range strategic cruise missiles deployed at the units of the Korean People's Army for the operation of tactical nukes.”
It said the two missiles had flown for 10,234 seconds, or nearly three hours, along an oval and figure-eight pattern in the skies above the Yellow Sea before slamming into targets 2,000 kilometers away.