N. Korea conducts cruise missile test

North Korea test-fires a sea-to-surface cruise guided missile on Jan. 25, 2025

North Korea said Sunday it test-fired strategic cruise missiles the previous day, with leader Kim Jong Un overseeing Pyongyang’s first missile test of 2025.

The examination of the sea-to-surface cruise guided weapons was aimed to “raise the effectiveness of strategic control against potential enemies in conformity with the changing regional safety circumstances,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.

The country’s Foreign Ministry also criticized the United States and South Korea over their recent joint miliary drills in a statement carried by KCNA on Sunday, warning such moves would be met with “the toughest counteraction from A to Z” as long as Washington refuses to recognize North Korea’s sovereignty and security interests.

This is the “best option” for dealing with the United States, the ministry added.

Trump said in an interview aired Thursday that he intends to reengage with Kim, suggesting his desire to rekindle diplomacy with North Korea. The leaders met three times during Trump’s first presidency, but their nuclear talks ultimately collapsed in 2019.

On Saturday, the strategic cruise missiles precisely hit their targets after traveling on 1,500 kilometer-long elliptical and figure of eight-shaped flight orbits for more than two hours. The test-firing did not impact the security of neighboring countries, according to KCNA.

The South Korean military said it detected the firing of multiple cruise missiles from an inland area in North Korea toward the Yellow Sea at around 4 p.m. Saturday.

Kim noted the test showed Pyongyang’s deterrence was “being perfected more thoroughly” and affirmed that North Korea will “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,” the agency said.