North Korea says it successfully test fired newly developed long-range cruise missiles.
The tests over the weekend would be the country's first known testing activity in months and would underscore how it continues to expand its military capabilities amid a stalemate in nuclear negotiations with the United States.
The Korean Central News Agency said Monday the cruise missiles, which had been under development for two years, successfully hit targets about 930 miles away on Saturday and Sunday.
The North hailed its new weapons as a “strategic weapon of great significance” that meets leader Kim Jong Un’s call to strengthen the country’s military might.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the North Korean activity reflects the threat it poses to the international community.
The international community is bent on getting the North to abandon its nuclear arsenal and has long used a combination of the threat of sanctions and the promise of economic help to try to influence the North. But U.S.-led negotiations on the nuclear issue have been stalled since the collapse of a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019.
At that time, the Americans rejected Kim’s demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear complex.