North Korea fires two cruise missiles, South Korea says

By Yoonjung Seo, CNN

North Korea fired two cruise missiles on Tuesday morning, according to the South Korean military.

The launch is being analyzed by the intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States.

It comes as North Korea has ramped up its missile tests this month, saying it will bolster its defenses against the US and evaluate “restarting all temporally suspended activities,” according to state media KCNA.

If confirmed as a test, the missiles fired Tuesday would mark the fifth such action this year by the Kim Jong Un regime.

On January 17, Pyongyang test-fired “tactical guided missiles,” which are short-range ballistic missiles, KCNA said.

North Korea claimed to have a successfully test-fired hypersonic missiles on January 5 and 11, and then what were presumed to be short-range ballistic missiles from a rail car on January 14.

Pyongyang is barred by international law from developing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

After the rail car test, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman admonished the US for its posture against Pyongyang’s weapons development. “If the US adopts such a confrontational stance, the DPRK will be forced to take stronger and certain reaction to it,” the spokesman said, referring to the country by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In a recent statement carried by KCNA, a spokesman defended North Korea’s right to bolster its arms, saying its “recent development of new-type weapon was just part of its efforts for modernizing its national defense capability.”

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