Politics

North Korea fires cruise missiles

Seoul, Jan 30 (EFE).- North Korea launched several cruise missiles into the Yellow Sea on Tuesday, according to the South Korean military, in the third test of this type in the past week.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected several cruise missiles of an unknown type launched by North Korea around 7 am on Tuesday (22:00 GMT Monday) and the intelligence authorities of Seoul and Washington were carrying out a detailed analysis, the JCS said in a statement.

This was the third launch of this type carried out by the regime in recent days after Pyongyang fired a newly developed strategic cruise missile called Pulhwasal-3-31 (Burning Arrow-3-31) on Sunday and last Wednesday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observed Sunday’s test, in which Pyongyang claimed to have fired the Pulhwasal-3-31 from a submarine for a flight time of more than two hours.

Seoul said it is considering the possibility that the regime exaggerated the flight duration of the projectiles and did not confirm whether they were launched from a submarine or a submerged platform.

In September, North Korea unveiled its new Hero Kim Kun-ok submarine, theoretically capable of launching various types of projectiles, including cruise missiles.

Experts believe that the Pulhwasal-3-31 could be a third version of the Hwasal (Arrow) cruise missiles and that the number 31 could refer to the fact that they can carry the Hwasan-31 (Volcano-31) tactical nuclear warhead, the existence of which was first revealed last year.

This new test comes amid high tension with South Korea, after Kim recently declared the neighboring state as its “main enemy,” said that reconciliation between both countries is impossible and then ordered the destruction of an iconic monument in Pyongyang that exalted a future reunification of the peninsula. EFE

asb/tw

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