North Korea fires several cruise missiles 

North Korea fired several cruise missiles from its west coast into the sea on Wednesday morning.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, “Our military detected several cruise missiles launched by North Korea towards the Yellow Sea at around 7:00 am today [22:00 GMT on Tuesday]”.

 “The detailed specifications are being closely analysed by South Korean and US intelligence authorities”, he said.

Pyongyang, which is under strict United Nations sanctions over its nuclear weapons programme, has continued to conduct weapons tests this year including a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile and the test of a purported nuclear-capable underwater attack drone.

Cruise missile tests are not banned under the UN sanctions but the JCS said it was monitoring further activities by North Korea.

Cruise missiles tend to be jet-propelled and fly at a lower altitude than more sophisticated ballistic missiles, but analysts say they could pose a risk to South Korea and Japan because they are harder to detect by radar.