DPRK conducts strategic cruise missile test

SEOUL -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea conducted a sea-to-surface strategic cruise missile test on Saturday under the supervision of its top leader to beef up its defense capabilities amid the latest military provocations by the United States and the Republic of Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

The test fire saw strategic cruise missiles precisely hitting pre-set targets after traveling the 1,500 km-long elliptical and eight-shaped flight orbits for 7,507 to 7,511 seconds, with no negative impact on the security of the neighboring countries, said the report.

The latest military move, the report said, is part of plans for building the country's defense capabilities to raise the effectiveness of strategic control against potential enemies in conformity with the changing regional safety circumstances.

The country "will always make strenuous efforts in a responsible manner to perform its important mission and duty for defending sustainable and lasting peace and stability on the basis of more powerfully developed military muscle in the future," Kim Jong-un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, who oversaw the weapons test on Saturday, was quoted as saying.

In a statement on Sunday, the DPRK Foreign Ministry condemned the United States and the ROK for their latest military provocations and reaffirmed its hard-line stance towards the United States.

Lashing out at the United States and the ROK for their joint air drill and firing drill earlier this month, in addition to a trilateral air drill involving strategic bombers among the United States, the ROK and Japan, the ministry said the military moves "serious provocations" that "added a danger variable to the unstable security environment on the Korean Peninsula and in the region."

"The DPRK Foreign Ministry is closely watching the military provocations of the US and the ROK escalating the tension on the Korean Peninsula and seriously warns them that such moves will entail a reflective counteraction," it said.

The DPRK will "counter the US with the toughest counteraction" as long as it refuses (to recognize) the DPRK's sovereignty and security interests, said the statement.

The DPRK will not permit the imbalance of strength imposed by the military nexus between the US and the ROK, and will take the toughest counteraction to defend its sovereign rights and security interests, and ensure peace and stability in the region, it said.