Seo Wook: "North Korea's cruise missile identified by ROK-US... Detailed analysis underway"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] Seo Wook, Minister of National Defense, announced on the 14th that South Korea and the United States detected the new long-range cruise missile that North Korea announced it had test-fired.

At the foreign affairs and security-related government questioning session held at the National Assembly that day, Seo responded to the question from Kim Byung-joo, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, asking, "Yesterday, North Korea's Korean Central News Agency announced the successful test launch of a cruise missile. Is this true?" by saying, "The missile launch is a fact. It was detected by combined ROK-US assets."

When asked, "Is the identification accurate?" Seo replied, "Yes," adding, "We are conducting an initial analysis and cannot provide detailed information, but we are analyzing the specifics in cooperation with the United States."

Regarding the intention behind the cruise missile launch, he said, "In January, North Korea announced a five-year plan for weapons system development as part of arbitrary defense capability enhancement, and this is evaluated as a test launch related to that."

In response to Kim's question, "How do you assess North Korea's cruise missile technology level?" Seo answered, "We have been aware of missile development trends since the early 2000s, and it is estimated and assessed that they have intensified the development of new models based on accumulated technology."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.