North Korea fired its fourth barrage of cruise missiles in some two weeks, a move that came just hours after leader Kim Jong Un called for stepping up "war preparations” during a visit to a naval shipyard.
Multiple cruise missiles were fired toward waters off North Korea’s west coast at around 11 a.m. Friday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters. U.S. and South Korean intelligence authorities were analyzing the test, it said. Kim’s regime usually releases information about the launches a day after the fact.
The North Korean leader inspected warships being built at the Nampho Dockyard on the country’s west coast, the official Korean Central News Agency reported earlier. He was on hand to see the test late last month of a new cruise missile designed to be fired from a submarine and also inspected a nuclear-powered submarine his state is trying to build.