South Korea military: North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles
South Korea's military says North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles toward the sea from the east coast of the Korean Peninsula on Thursday morning.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff say North Korea fired the cruise missiles at around 9:00 a.m. from the Sondok area of South Hamgyong Province. The JCS did not provide further details, such as the distance they traveled or where they fell.
North Korea has carried out a number of cruise missile launches in recent months.
In January, North Korea said it test-fired a cruise missile, and it conducted a military exercise in February to launch another. In April, North Korea said it test-fired cruise missiles mounted on a recently launched destroyer.
Defense experts say cruise missiles are difficult to intercept because they travel along oval trajectories at low altitudes for hours.
Thursday's launches followed the North Korean state-media's announcement earlier in the day that there was a "serious" accident during the launch of a new destroyer on Wednesday.
South Korean media quoted South Korean government officials as saying that the cruise missile launches could be intended as a demonstration of its ability to operate its missile forces reliably and also to deflect attention from Wednesday's failure.
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