Seoul says Pyongyang launched more cruise missiles
North Korea launched several cruise missiles on Friday, South Korea's military said.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected an unspecified number of missiles launched from North Korea's west coast around 11 am (0200 GMT), news agency Yonhap reported.
Yonhap said that it was Pyongyang's fourth cruise missile launch so far this year.
North Korea has recently said that it has tested a new type of submarine-launched cruise missile, a Pulhwasal-3-31, to expand its nuclear strike capability.
The cruise missiles, fired on Sunday, hit their target on an island in the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan, state-controlled media reported. Pyongyang claimed to have tested the same weapon for the first time days earlier.
In addition to nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, North Korea has also tested cruise missiles, which it describes as strategic, on several occasions in recent years.
The designation as a strategic weapon suggests that North Korea may also have designed the cruise missiles for the deployment of nuclear warheads. North Korea is subject to international sanctions because of its nuclear weapons and missile programme.
Unlike ballistic missiles, cruise missiles tests are not directly affected by the UN ban on the largely isolated country. Cruise missiles have their own permanent propulsion system.
North Korea, which regards the United States and South Korea as enemy states, has been pushing ahead with the development of nuclear weapons for years.
