The government is becoming more convinced that North Korea's test launches of new long-range cruise missiles on Sept. 11 and 12 were failures, saying it is highly likely that the missiles fell before reaching their targets, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the missiles flew 1,500 kilometers for about two hours "along an oval and pattern-8 flight orbits above the territorial land and waters of the DPRK," and said the tests "were successfully held."
However, the Japanese government has not been able to confirm the flight of the cruise missiles, and other concerned countries said they were also unable to track the missiles soon after launch.
"Looking at it comprehensively, it seems that [the missiles] crashed for whatever reason," a government source said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said at a press conference Thursday that a subsequent test launch on Wednesday involved ballistic missiles similar to short-range ballistic missiles launched on May 4, 2019, which travel on an irregular trajectory. The KCNA said these were fired as a test of a new "railway-borne" system.
It is believed that these were the two ballistic missiles that dropped into the sea within Japan's exclusive economic zone on Wednesday. "If it is true, it will be difficult to detect [the missiles] as they can move quickly," a senior Defense Ministry official said.
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