North Korea announces test of new missiles

North Korea said Friday that leader Kim Jong Un has guided the test launches of its newly developed precision-guided missiles, in a possible reference to three short-range projectiles that South Korean officials say the North fired toward its waters a day earlier.

South Korean defense officials said the projectiles, fired from an eastern port city Thursday, flew about 120 miles before harmlessly landing into the waters off its east coast. The exact type of those projectiles and the North's intentions weren't immediately known.

The North's state media said Friday that the country tested what it calls "cutting-edge ultra-precision tactical guided missiles" and that Kim watched the tests with top deputies and was satisfied with the results.

There is virtually no way to independently confirm whether North Korea has developed such high-tech missiles. Pyongyang has frequently exaggerated about its military capability, and its army, though one of the world's largest, is seen as running on outdated equipment and short supplies amid the nation's chronic economic problems, according to foreign analysts.

Outside analysts say North Korea has developed a handful of crude nuclear devices and is working toward building a warhead small enough to mount on a long-range missile, although most experts say that goal may take years to achieve.

The North didn't say when the latest launches took place or how many missiles were fired, but they are likely the projectiles that Seoul says North Korea fired Thursday, as there have been no other such reported firings by North Korea in recent days.

South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said Friday that North Korea has been trying to upgrade its large-caliber multiple rocket launch systems in recent years and that those weapons' range has been slightly and gradually increased in each test launch.

The North Korean media dispatch Friday called the latest missile launches "significant" since they were made at a time when it is bolstering its national defense because the U.S. and South Korea are "going extremely reckless in the moves to isolate and stifle [North Korea] and unleash a war of aggression."

Short-range test firings by North Korea aren't unusual, but a barrage of missile and artillery tests earlier this year boosted tension between the rivals. A North Korean artillery attack in 2010 killed four South Koreans on a front-line Yellow Sea island.

North Korea has in recent months threatened South Korea's president, Park Geun-hye, calling her names, and the South has vowed to hit North Korea hard if provoked. North Korea's rising anger coincided with annual joint military exercises by the U.S. and South Korea and a visit to Seoul by President Barack Obama. North Korea also test-fired two medium-range ballistic missiles and exchanged artillery fire with South Korea near a disputed boundary in the Yellow Sea.

On Thursday, North Korea's army accused South Korea of firing shells into the North's waters near the sea boundary.

And on Wednesday, Pyongyang condemned an upcoming Hollywood film starring actors James Franco and Seth Rogen — who play characters caught up in a plot to assassinate Kim Jong Un — as an “act of war.”

The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950–53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 American troops are deployed in South Korea to deter potential aggression from North Korea.

The Associated Press