North Korea says it has test fired long-range cruise missile

 North Korea successfully tested a new long-range cruise missile over the weekend, state media KCNA said, and was criticized by the United States in a protracted denuclearization conflict.

The missile was a "very important strategic weapon," KCNA said, hitting its targets in tests on Saturday and Sunday and traveling 1,500 km (930 miles) before landing in the country's territorial waters. The missile is said to have traveled for 126 minutes along the “oval and model 8 flight path”.

The US military has said the missile test poses a "threat" to and beyond its neighbors in the country.

"This activity continues to focus on developing (North Korea's) military plans and the threat they pose to neighboring countries and the international community," the U.S. Indo-Pacific military said in a statement. .

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said the government was "concerned" about the report and would continue to work closely with the United States and South Korea to monitor the situation.

Images from North Korean Rodong Sinmun showed missiles coming out of one of five tubes of a fireball rocket and a level-flying missile.

According to analysts, such weapons represent a significant advance in North Korean weapons technology and may better prevent the defense system from dropping warheads on allies of the Southern United States or Japan.

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"This will be the first cruise missile explicitly designated as a 'strategic role' in North Korea," Ankit Panda, senior researcher at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for Peace, told Reuters. "This is a common understatement for nuclear ready systems."

It is not known whether North Korea has acquired the technology to miniaturize warheads that can be mounted on cruise missiles, but Prime Minister Kim Jong-un said earlier this year that the development of small bombs was the primary objective.

Kim did not appear to participate in the test. KCNA said it was overseen by Pak Jong-chon, a member of the powerful Labor Party political bureau and secretary of the central committee.

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The reported launch is the first since March by the North. The administration also conducted cruise missile tests just hours after US President Joe Biden took office in January.

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North Korean cruise missiles tend to be of less concern than ballistic missiles because they are not explicitly prohibited by UN Security Council resolutions.

The announcement of the test came just a day before key US, South Korean and Japanese negotiators met in Tokyo to find ways to resolve the conflict with North Korea.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will also travel to Seoul on Tuesday to meet with Chung Eui-yong.

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Negotiations to dismantle North Korea's nuclear ballistic missile program in return for US sanctions relief have stalled since 2019.

The United Nations atomic watchdog said last month that North Korea appears to have restarted a reactor that appears to have produced plutonium for nuclear weapons.

The Biden administration has declared itself open to diplomacy to achieve the denuclearization of North Korea, but has shown no willingness to ease sanctions.

US special envoy Sung Kim said in August he was ready to meet with North Korean officials "anytime, anywhere" in Seoul.

The resumption of the inter-Korean summit in July has raised expectations that negotiations will resume, but North Korea stopped responding to calls last month when the annual South Korea-US military exercise began. , and North Korea crisis.

With Reuters, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse