North launches 'strategic cruise missiles' from submarine, South-U.S. drills begin

North Korea fired two cruise missiles from a submarine in waters off its east coast Sunday, according to its state media Monday, on the eve of the South and the United States' largest joint military exercises in years.

North Korea fires two ″strategic cruise missiles″ from a submarine in waters off the country's east coast, in a photo released by its official Korean Central News Agency on Monday. [YONHAP]

North Korea fired two cruise missiles from a submarine in waters off its east coast Sunday, according to its state media Monday, on the eve of the South and the United States' largest joint military exercises in years.

The "strategic cruise missiles" were fired from the submarine 8.24 Yongung in waters off Kyongpho Bay in the East Sea in an underwater launching drill held at dawn Sunday, according to the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

This marked the first known launches by Pyongyang of submarine-launched cruise missiles (SLCM), though South Korean military officials have not confirmed some of the details. The North's previous underwater launches involved ballistic missiles.

It also appears to be the first time the North fired multiple missiles from a submarine in a single drill.

Sunday's drill confirmed the "reliability" of the weapons system and "examined the underwater-to-surface offensive operations of submarine units" that constitute one of the major forces of the North Korean nuclear deterrent, according to the KCNA in the English-language report.

The two missiles "precisely hit the preset target on the East Sea," traveling 1,500 kilometers in "eight-shaped flight orbits" for 7,563 to 7,575 seconds, it added, noting the drills "successfully achieved its object."

This could put within range U.S. military bases on the Korean Peninsula and in Japan.

The KCNA reported that the drill showed that the North Korean People's Army is "persistently controlling the present situation" in which the United States and the South Korean forces "are getting evermore undisguised in their anti-DPRK military maneuvers" and "verified the current operation posture of the nuclear war deterrence means in different spaces."

DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement early Monday that an unspecified missile launched from a North Korean submarine in the waters near Sinpo in South Hamgyong Province, was detected Sunday morning. The statement came minutes ahead of the North Korean state media report.

It added that the details of the missile, such as its altitude and range, were being closely analyzed by South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities.

A South Korean military official said that some of the claims made by the North couldn't be confirmed.

Military authorities likewise pointed out that the precision of North Korea's cruise missiles remains unverified and that the country's nuclear deterrence capabilities could be exaggerated.

Kyongpho Bay is located near Sinpo, the site of North Korea's submarine base.

The 8.24 Yongung is an existing Sinpo-class submarine that North Korea claimed conducted its first submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test on in 2016.

The "Yongung" in its name means "hero" in Korean, and the numbers refer to the SLBM test date, Aug. 24, 2016.

North Korea claimed it had conducted another SLBM launch from the 8.24 Yongung on Oct. 19, 2021.

Analysts point out that North Korea may be developing its new submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM) weapons system to better defeat South Korean and U.S. missile defense systems and concepts, such as Seoul's "Kill Chain" pre-emptive strike doctrine.

Cruise missiles are harder to detect than ballistic missiles as they fly at a lower altitude and can be controlled in-flight, meaning they can fly under missile defense radars.

Unlike ballistic missiles, cruise missiles are not included in UN Security Council sanctions resolutions on North Korea.

U.S. Army armored vehicles prepare to cross the Hantan River at a training field in Yeoncheon County, Gyeonggi, near the border with North Korea, Monday, as the South Korean and U.S. militaries conduct their biggest joint military exercises in years. [AP/YONHAP]

At midnight Sunday, South Korea and the United States started their computer-simulated Freedom Shield (FS) exercise for an 11-day run, concurrently with the large-scale Warrior Shield field training exercises (FTX).

The springtime exercise is set to strengthen the allied forces' combined defense posture through "realistic" and "customized" scenarios reflective of the changing security environment, such as North Korea's nuclear and missile threats and the war in Ukraine, according to South Korean officials.

The training will be conducted continuously without interruption through March 23, the longest command post exercise to date and the largest joint exercise in five years.

The allies will also conduct around 20 field drills, including the Ssangyong amphibious exercise, for the large-scale Warrior Shield field-maneuver exercise.

Warrior Shield is widely considered a revival of the Foal Eagle annual springtime exercise, suspended in 2019 under the preceding Moon Jae-in administration amid denuclearization talks between the United States and the North.

The U.S. Navy is also expected to send the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz aircraft carrier to the peninsula later this month for combined maritime drills with the South Korean Navy as a part of the Freedom Shield exercise.

It may take part in a South Korea-U.S.-Japan joint missile warning drill as well.

This comes as Pyongyang ratchets its belligerent rhetoric against Seoul and Washington, as it often does during times of major combined annual exercises between the two allies.

North Korea has reacted sensitively to the deployment of U.S. strategic assets on the peninsula recently.

A U-2S high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft takes off from Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, Monday, as the South Korea-U.S. Freedom Shield military exercise kicked off for an 11-day run. [NEWS1]

On Sunday, the KNCA reported that North Korea has decided to take "important, practical" measures for the "offensive use" of war deterrents during an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of its ruling Workers' Party, presided over by leader Kim Jong-un.

The meeting "adopted the important practical steps for making more effective, powerful and offensive use of the war deterrent of the country in coping with the present situation in which the war provocations of the U.S. and south Korea are reaching the red-line," reported the KNCA.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry issued a statement Sunday denouncing the United States for raising the "human rights card" in an informal UN Security Council meeting, the KCNA reportedly separately on Monday.

"Timed to coincide with the large-scale U.S.-south Korea war exercises to be launched on March 13, the U.S., together with its followers, is scheming to coercively call an informal UN Security Council meeting to discuss the non-existent 'human rights issue' of the DPRK," said the ministry in the English-language statement.

Last Thursday, North Korea fired six close-range ballistic missiles, or CRBMs, toward the Yellow Sea, in response to joint aerial maneuvers by South Korea and U.S. earlier this month mobilizing the U.S. Air Force's B-1B strategic bomber.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]