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| A tactical guided missile is launched, according to state media, at an undisclosed location in North Korea, in this photo released Jan 17, 2022, by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). (Photo by=KCNA via REUTERS) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] SEOUL: North Korea seems to have test-fired at least two cruise missiles from an inland area, a South Korean official said, in what would be Pyongyang's fifth known round of missile launches this year.
"We still need to conduct a detailed analysis (on the launches)," the military official told reporters on condition of anonymity. "But I want to say that should such a missile be launched southward, our detection and interception systems have no problem countering it." The official did not offer details, including origins and targets. The North conducted the last known test of a cruise missile in September last year. At the time, it claimed to have fired a "new-type long-range cruise missile," calling it a "strategic weapon of great significance."
A cruise missile test does not run afoul of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning any launch using ballistic missile technology. Usually, the South's military does not make any formal announcement or statement in response to the North's cruise missile tests, versus swift public reaction against its ballistic missile activities. The North fired what it called two tactical guided missiles on Jan. 17, just three days after its purported test-firing of two other missiles by its railway-borne unit.
