Seoul:

Seoul’s military said North Korea fired several cruise missiles on Sunday, the latest in a series of moves by the nuclear-armed state that have escalated tensions.

The launch came just days after Pyongyang fired several cruise missiles toward the Yellow Sea in what it said was the first test of a new generation of strategic cruise missiles.

Pyongyang has stepped up weapons testing in the new year, including tests of an “underwater nuclear weapons system” and a solid-fuel hypersonic ballistic missile.

“Our forces detected multiple unidentified cruise missiles fired near waters around the Sinpo area of ​​North Korea at 8:00 a.m. (2300 GMT) this morning,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The JCS said the launch was being analyzed by South Korean and US intelligence officials, adding that it was “closely monitoring North Korea’s additional actions and activities.”

Unlike their ballistic counterparts, testing cruise missiles is not banned under existing UN sanctions against Pyongyang.

Cruise missiles are jet-powered and fly at lower altitudes than more sophisticated ballistic missiles, making them harder to detect and intercept.

On Thursday, North Korea said it had conducted the first test of a new generation of strategic cruise missiles, the Pulhwasl-3-31, being developed a day earlier.

State news agency KCNA said the test was “a process of continuous updating of the weapon system and a routine and mandatory activity.” It did not say how many missiles were fired.

“This test has no impact on the security of neighboring countries and has nothing to do with the regional situation,” the agency said.

deteriorating relationships

Relations between the two Koreas have seen a sharp deterioration in recent months, with both sides canceling key de-escalation agreements, stepping up border security and holding live-fire exercises along the border.

Earlier this month, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared the South his country’s “major enemy”, setting aside agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach and condemning “even 0.001 mm” of territorial violations. Threatened with war.

In Seoul, President Yoon Suk Yeol told his Cabinet that if nuclear-armed North Korea carried out any provocation, South Korea would respond “many times stronger,” pointing to its military’s “tremendous response capabilities.” Will respond with.

At Pyongyang’s year-end policy meetings, Kim threatened a nuclear attack on the South and called for a build-up of his country’s military arsenal ahead of an armed conflict that he warned could “flare up at any time”.

In January, just days after Pyongyang held live-fire drills near the country’s tense maritime border with South Korea, the North launched a solid-fuel hypersonic missile, prompting retaliatory drills near some border islands belonging to the South. And ordered evacuation.

Kim successfully placed a spy satellite into orbit late last year, after Seoul received Russian aid in exchange for arms transfers for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)