North Korea fired several cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, Seoul’s military said, the latest in a series of tension-raising moves by the nuclear-armed state.
Hours later, North Korea appeared to confirm the firing, saying it had carried out its first test of a new generation of strategic cruise missiles it is developing, the Pulhwasal-3-31.
Pyongyang has accelerated weapons testing in the new year, including tests of what it called an “underwater nuclear weapon system” and a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile.