North Korea said it successfully tested ‘strategic’ long-range cruise missiles

• North Korea said it test-fired long range missiles over the weekend, according to state-run media.
• Officials called the missile “a strategic weapon of great significance.”
• One expert told Reuters “strategic” is “a common euphemism for nuclear-capable system.”
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North Korea said it test-fired new long-range missiles this weekend, state-run Korean Central News Agency reported, according to Reuters.

KCNA said the missiles flew for over two hours and successfully hit a target 1,500 km (930 miles) away during tests on Saturday and Sunday.

Officials called the missile “a strategic weapon of great significance” to the country’s defense, adding that the weapons serve as “another effective deterrence means for more reliably guaranteeing the security of our state and strongly containing the military maneuvers of the hostile forces against the DPRK.”

Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the US, told Reuters: “This would be the first cruise missile in North Korea to be explicitly designated a ‘strategic’ role.”

“This is a common euphemism for nuclear-capable system,” Panda said.