(Seoul) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised a test of a “new type of surface-to-sea missile”, the official agency reported on Thursday, as part of what is presented as an initiative to strengthen the security of the country’s maritime borders.
Nuclear-armed North Korea this year declared South Korea its “primary enemy,” closed agencies dedicated to reunifying the peninsula, and threatened war over any territorial violations.
Pyongyang has also stepped up its weapons tests, including launching a series of cruise missiles, testing an “undersea nuclear weapon system” and firing a solid-fueled hypersonic ballistic missile.
PHOTO STR, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (seated) during the test.
South Korea’s military said Wednesday it had detected the North’s launch of several cruise missiles.
Kim Jong-un supervised “the test to evaluate the new Padasuri-6 surface-to-sea missile intended for the navy,” announced the official North Korean news agency.
The leader expressed “great satisfaction with the results of the shooting,” KCNA added.
The missiles reached their targets after flying over the East Sea for 1,400 seconds, the agency said.
Kim Jong-un said South Korea had allowed “various types of battleships to enter the DPRK’s waters to seriously encroach on its sovereignty,” referring to the North by its official acronym.
The maritime border between the two countries, known as the Northern Boundary Line, has never been officially demarcated and has been the scene of previous clashes between the two Koreas.
The North Korean leader denounced Seoul’s “desperate efforts to preserve the North Boundary Line” and vowed that North Korea would “fully defend maritime sovereignty through force of arms and action, not through any rhetoric.”
He declared earlier this year that he would no longer recognize the Northern Boundary Line, and according to KCNA on Thursday, he called the de facto border a “phantom without any basis in light of international law.”
North Korea also announced on Monday that it had developed a new control system for multiple rocket launchers that it believes could significantly strengthen its defense capabilities.