Iran Press/ Asia: The missile drill, which the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said took place early Thursday, saw four Hwasal-2 strategic cruise missiles “precisely hit” a target in the Sea of Japan “after traveling the 2,000-km-long elliptical and eight-shaped flight orbits” for about 170 minutes.
They traveled 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) before "precisely" hitting their target, the report said, without specifying what the targets were.
North Korea tested what it said were long-range strategic cruise missiles designed to carry tactical nuclear bombs in October last year. Experts say cruise missiles, which fly far slowed than ballistic weapons, present a unique danger in that they can fly low and maneuver, making them potentially very difficult to intercept by air and missile defenses.
Unlike ballistic weapons, cruise missiles are not banned under United Nations sanctions on North Korea.
The latest cruise missile launches came as the Pentagon announced Friday that the United States and South Korea had conducted a tabletop military exercise earlier in the week that focused on the potential use of nuclear weapons by North Korea. 219
