North Korea announced today (Thursday) that the country has tested a new strategic cruise missile named "Pulhwasal-3-31" for the first time.

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA): The Central News Agency of Korea known as KCNA reported, quoting the General Missile Administration of this country, that this test launch is "the process of continuous updating of the weapon system and the regular and mandatory activity of this agency and related defense science institutes.

This report does not provide any details, including the flight rate of this missile.

South Korea's military said on Wednesday that North Korea fired several cruise missiles into the Yellow Sea at 7 a.m. local time, but did not provide further details, including the distance traveled.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency also reported that this launch is the first launch of a cruise missile by North Korea since September 2023.

Pyongyang, which is under severe UN sanctions over its nuclear weapons program, has continued to conduct weapons tests this year, including testing a solid-fueled hypersonic ballistic missile and testing an underwater attack spacecraft capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

The cruise missile tests are not banned under UN sanctions, but South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it was monitoring more of North Korea's activities. Cruise missiles are jet-powered and fly at a lower altitude than more advanced ballistic missiles, but analysts say they could pose a threat to South Korea and Japan because they are more difficult to detect by radar.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen in recent months as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has accelerated weapons development and continued what the United States and its allies see as "provocative threats of nuclear conflict in the region." Japan, South Korea and the United States, meanwhile, have expanded their combined military exercises, which Kim views as offensive exercises, and have further prepared their deterrence strategies built around American equipment capable of carrying nuclear weapons.