Undetected, North Korea Launched Four Strategic Cruise Missiles Earlier This Week

JAKARTA - North Korea on Friday announced it had carried out a strategic cruise missile launch earlier this week, demonstrating the "war posture" of its nuclear combat forces.

North Korea's strategic cruise missile unit fired four Hwasal-2 strategic cruise missiles from Kim Chaek City, North Hamgyong Province in the northeast towards the East Sea, according to North Korea's Central News Agency.

"The four strategic cruise missiles precisely hit their predetermined targets in the East Korean Sea after traveling an elliptical flight orbit of 2,000 kilometers and an eight-shaped flight for 10,208 seconds to 10,224 seconds," KCNA said in an English-language statement, citing the Korea Times, February 24.

"The exercise clearly demonstrated once again the war posture of the DPRK nuclear combat forces, strengthening its lethal nuclear counter-strike capability against enemy forces," the statement continued.

DPRK is an abbreviation of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The missile launch was not announced by South Korea or Japan, which frequently detect and publicly report North Korean missile launches.

On Wednesday (US time), South Korea and the United States held a table-top drill to counter North Korea's nuclear threat to the Pentagon.

US and South Korean officials took part in the exercise, which focused on North Korea's possible use of nuclear weapons, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

In addition, South Korea, the United States, and Japan also held a trilateral missile defense drill in the international waters of the East Sea on Wednesday.

North Korea is making steady progress in developing and mass-producing new missiles, despite sanctions imposed by United Nations Security Council resolutions banning the nuclear-armed nation's missile activities.