North responds to Yoon Suk-yeol's olive branch with cruise missiles

North Korea fired two cruise missiles from its western coast on Wednesday morning, breaking a two-month pause in missile tests.

Passengers at Seoul Station watch a news broadcast about North Korea's Wednesday morning test of two cruise missiles. [YONHAP]

North Korea fired two cruise missiles from its western coast on Wednesday morning, breaking a two-month pause in missile tests.

The missiles were launched from Onchon, South Pyongan Province into the Yellow Sea, according to a military official who spoke on condition of anonymity to Yonhap.

The North’s tests came exactly a hundred days after South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol took office.

In a Liberation Day speech two days earlier, Yoon laid out an “audacious initiative” to persuade the North to give up its nuclear weapons with offers of aid for the country's economy.

Yoon did not mention the cruise missiles during the first full-fledged press conference of his term on Wednesday afternoon.

Military officials said that South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies are analyzing the tests and did not reveal further details such as their speed or trajectories.

After the launches, South Korea’s National Security Office held a meeting to evaluate the situation and examined the military’s preparedness, according to the presidential office.

Cruise missile tests by the North are not banned under United Nations Security Council resolutions, which only prohibit tests of ballistic missile technology by Pyongyang, including satellite launches.

Unlike ballistic missiles, cruise missiles are propelled by jet engines and are not designed to carry nuclear warheads.

While the North has conducted 19 missile tests so far this year, the last time it tested cruise missiles was in January.

That test, which took place on Jan. 25, saw the North launch long-range cruise missiles that flew for 9,137 seconds and hit their target island 1,800 kilometers away, according to the North’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The North’s hypersonic cruise missiles, which fly at extremely low altitudes and are capable of changing direction mid-flight, can target and neutralize missile defense systems such as the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system.

The launches could be in response to upcoming joint exercises by South Korea and the United States, which officially begin Aug. 22 and end on Sept. 1. Preliminary drills in preparation for the joint exercises, named Ulchi Freedom Shield, began on Tuesday.

The joint exercises have been routinely condemned by Pyongyang as a rehearsal for invasion.

South Korea, the United States and Japan have stepped up cooperation in joint missile defense in recent months, with the three countries concluding the biennial Pacific Dragon exercise in Hawaii on Sunday.

According to a Pentagon statement, the exercise demonstrated the three countries’ resolve for joint defense in the face of North Korea’s growing missile arsenal.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]