North Korea tests 'strategic' cruise missiles as it lashes out at U.S. and South Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observes a test of what state-run media said was a strategic cruise missile at an undisclosed location in this image released Sunday. | KCNA

by JESSE JOHNSON
January 26, 2025

North Korea conducted its first weapons test since U.S. President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, firing off "strategic" cruise missiles — code for nuclear-capable weapons — as Pyongyang lashed out at the U.S. and South Korea over joint military exercises.

The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KNCA) reported Sunday that leader Kim Jong Un had observed the test a day earlier, calling the underwater-to-surface strategic cruise missile system part of “war deterrence means” that “are being perfected more thoroughly.”

The missiles “precisely” hit targets after traveling along a 1,500 kilometer-long elliptical and figure-eight-shaped flight paths for a little over two hours each, KCNA said, adding that the test-fire “had no negative impact” on the security of neighboring countries.