North Korea has test-fired two types of submarine-launched strategic cruise missiles in the sea off its east coast, according to state media. The launch took place on Wednesday and was intended to check the reliability of the country’s war deterrents and to improve the navy’s ability to carry out strategic missions, the report said.
The test came as Pyongyang has been firing a series of weapons in recent weeks. Earlier this week, it also launched multiple ballistic missiles toward the sea off its east coast, adding to a run of tests at a time when relations with Seoul are deteriorating.
Submarine-launched cruise missiles tested at sea
State media said one of the missiles was a Pulhwasal-3-31, the same type that North Korea said it had test-fired from land last week. Senior military officers observed the tests, which were conducted at sea off the east coast.
State media added that the tests had no adverse impact on the security of neighbouring countries. Analysts have not yet seen evidence that North Korea has put a modern missile submarine into full operation, a goal that leader Kim Jong Un has named as a top military priority. Kim has overseen the development of a range of strategic ballistic and cruise missiles.
Rising tensions with Seoul and Washington
Last year, Kim criticised a nuclear submarine deal between the United States and South Korea while touring a submarine production facility. State media images from that visit showed an 8,700-tonne nuclear-powered missile submarine under construction. Kim described the deal as a threat to stability on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported.
On October 3, North Korea tested a hypersonic intermediate-range missile designed to evade missile defences in South Korea and Japan. Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson, Jang Do-young, said the latest ballistic launch appeared to be a show of force, coming only days after South Korea tested its own hypersonic weapon.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung oversaw that first test firing last week, a rare public showcase of a missile test by a South Korean president. His office said the weapon, once fully developed, would boost the country’s ability to strike key targets by surprise in the “Korean Peninsula theatre of operations”.
Landmine dispute and stalled diplomacy
Relations have worsened further over landmines in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas. Seoul blamed North Korea for a landmine blast in September that wounded three soldiers. A joint South Korean-United Nations investigation later concluded that two landmines which exploded in the DMZ had been planted by North Korean forces about a year earlier, prompting Seoul to demand an official apology.
Pyongyang has sharply accelerated military fortification along the DMZ as part of Kim’s “hostile-states” policy, launched in 2023, which aims to permanently sever ties with South Korea. Diplomacy has been stalled since denuclearisation talks between Washington and Pyongyang collapsed in 2019 during the first Trump administration. Trump has floated the possibility of meeting Kim in his second term, but no such meeting has taken place.
