State media: Pyongyang test-fired long-range cruise missiles

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea test-fired a pair of long-range strategic cruise missiles hitting a target 2,000 kilometers away, state media reported on Thursday.

The test was overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday, state news agency KCNA reported.

The missiles flew off the west coast for almost three hours in a test aimed at improving the “combat efficiency and might” of long-range strategic cruise missiles deployed to its army “for the operation of tactical nukes,” KCNA said.

Kim expressed “great satisfaction” and stressed that his country should “focus all efforts on the endless and accelerating development” of nuclear weapons to bolster its defense capabilities, KCNA said.

South Korea’s unification ministry urged North Korea to immediately cease testing, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

The ministry urged North Korea to change its approach toward South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s “audacious initiative” to help rebuild its economy in return for denuclearization steps, Yonhap reported.

“In coordination with the relevant authorities, we are keeping close tabs on North Korea with a sense of alertness under the view that the current security situation is grave,” a ministry official told Yonhap on the condition of anonymity.

Nuclear-armed North Korea has conducted a string of missile tests over the past two weeks. It was not immediately clear if Wednesday’s cruise missiles were detected by Japan, South Korea and the United States.

U.N. resolutions prohibit North Korea from testing ballistic missiles of any range, some of which are capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.