SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un watched the test launch of strategic cruise missiles from a navy ship, state media reported Monday, as the U.S. and South Korean militaries begin large-scale annual drills that Pyongyang views as an invasion rehearsal.
North Korea’s report on missile tests came three days after US President Joe Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to expand their security and economic ties in a summit at Camp David, Maryland.
During an inspection tour of a navy flotilla off North Korea’s east coast on an unspecified date, Kim boarded a patrol vessel to check its weaponry and combat readiness, the Korean Central News Agency reported. (KCNA). He said Kim later observed his sailors conducting a mock launch of “strategic” cruise missiles, a word that implies that the weapons being tested were developed to carry nuclear warheads.
In a state media photograph, he could be seen watching a missile rise from the patrol ship while he was somewhere else, not on the ship.
The KCNA said the missiles hit their designated targets without any error, in a demonstration of the ship’s attack capability and state of readiness.
Kim said he would step up efforts to build powerful warships and modernize the North Korean Navy’s shipboard and underwater weapons systems. He called on the country’s seafarers to develop “overwhelming ideological and spiritual strength,” noting that this is more important than numerical or technical weapons superiority, according to the KCNA.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the North Korean report on its cruise missile tests contains data that is “an exaggeration” and “does not match the facts.” He said the South Korean military will maintain a firm state of readiness, based on its ability to overwhelmingly defeat possible North Korean provocations.
North Korea was scheduled to resume its weapons tests in response to the summer military training between the United States and South Korea, which began on Monday and will run for 11 days.
