North says it fired 'new-type strategic cruise missile'

North Korea’s state media said Thursday that the missiles fired by the regime the day before were from an updated line of cruise missiles.

A Pulhwasal-3-31 ″new-type strategic cruise missile″ is fired by the North in this photo provided by Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central News Agency. [YONHAP]

North Korea’s state media said Thursday that the missiles fired by the regime the day before were from an updated line of cruise missiles.

According to Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the weapon is a “new-type strategic cruise missile” named Pulhwasal-3-31, which in Korean translates to “flaming arrow.”

The KCNA also said the regime’s Missile General Bureau carried out the test as part of its “regular duty” to “constantly renew weapons systems” in tandem with state defense science research institutes, but did not provide any specifics regarding the missiles’ flight paths.

The state news agency claimed that the missile test “did not pose any threat to the security of neighboring countries,” adding that the test “was not related in any way to the regional situation.”

North Korea is not explicitly banned from developing cruise missiles under United Nations Security Council resolutions, unlike ballistic missiles.

Powered by jet propulsion technology, cruise missiles usually fly at a lower speed and altitude than ballistic missiles.

However, experts say they still pose a risk to South Korea and Japan because they are harder to detect by radar.

Advanced cruise missiles are also harder to intercept because they are often self-navigating and can fly on extremely low-altitude trajectories compared to ballistic missiles.

South Korean military authorities, who told reporters on Wednesday that they had detected “multiple” launches, said they are currently analyzing the latest cruise missiles fired by the North and examining how they differ from the Hwasal-1 and Hwasal-2 cruise missiles fired by the North last year.

In September, the North released photos of what appeared to be Hwasal-2 cruise missiles being fired from a ship and claimed they flew 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) over their flight trajectories.

In response to the North’s latest weapons test, U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel called on the regime to return to dialogue during a press briefing held in Washington on Wednesday (local time).

“It’s important to remember that we have been incredibly clear about the fact that we harbor no hostile intent towards the DPRK and continue to be open to diplomacy without preconditions,” he said, calling the North by the acronym for its official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

But the spokesman also said that Washington would consult with Seoul and Tokyo on how to deter Pyongyang’s “destabilizing” behavior and emphasized that the United States is still pursuing “the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

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