Tokyo, 18 January, /AJMEDIA/
North Korea test-fired tactical guided missiles that accurately hit a marine target in Monday’s launches, state media reported Tuesday.
The report from the official Korean Central News Agency came a day after South Korea and Japan said North Korea launched two suspected short-range ballistic missiles. It was Pyongyang’s fourth test-firing of missiles this year.
The projectiles were fired in an easterly direction from the Sunan Airport area in the capital Pyongyang shortly before 9 a.m. on Monday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, adding they traveled about 380 kilometers and reached an altitude of around 42 km.
“The two tactical guided missiles launched in the western area of the DPRK precisely hit an island target” in the Sea of Japan, KCNA said, referring to the acronym of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
The purpose of the test was to “selectively evaluate tactical guided missiles being produced and deployed and to verify the accuracy of the weapon system,” it said.
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency on Monday quoted an informed source as saying that the missiles traveled at a top speed of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has often reportedly been present for tests of the country’s missile capabilities. But he was not reported to have attended Monday’s test.
North Korea test-fired what it says were newly developed hypersonic missiles on Jan. 5 and last Tuesday, while conducting a firing drill for a railway-borne missile regiment.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said North Korea has fired at least 100 projectiles since Kim became supreme leader following the death of his father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, in December 2011.
During phone talks on Monday, senior officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan in charge of North Korean issues expressed “strong concerns” about Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear development programs, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
