A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un overseeing a strategic cruise missile launching drill in the West Sea of Korea at an undisclosed location in North Korea in February 2025. On Saturday, he oversaw the test-firing of two new missiles meant to protect against aerial threats. File Photo courtesy of KCNA/EPA-EFE
Aug. 24 (UPI) — North Korea has test-fired two missiles newly designed to protect against aerial attacks, overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, state media announced Sunday.
The supreme leader oversaw the missile tests along with multiple members of the Workers’ Party of Korea and military officials, the Korea Central News Agency reported. The outlet said the missiles have “superior combat capability” and a “fast response” to attacks from aerial targets such as drones and cruise missiles.
The testing came less than a week after Ulchi Freedom Shield 25, joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, ABC News reported. The annual training exercises began Monday and were expected to end Thursday.
The training was expected to include live-fly events with U.S. F-35A and F-35C Lightning II aircraft as well as space-related elements, the Defense Department said. The Pentagon said the exercises work to strengthen the agencies’ response capabilities.
“Ulchi Freedom Shield 25 underscores the continuing military partnership between the U.S. and South Korea and is implemented in the spirit of the Oct. 1, 1953, mutual defense treaty,” the Defense Department said in a post Thursday.
“It continues to reinforce the role of the alliance as the linchpin for regional peace and security, reaffirming the ironclad commitment between the U.S. and South Korea to defend their homelands.”
Hours before North Korea’s missile test, U.N. Command confirmed the South Korean government fired warning shots at about 30 North Korean soldiers who crossed the Demilitarized Zone.
South Korean “forces issued several warning broadcasts in an attempt to notify the soldiers that they had crossed the [Military Demarcation Line], but they did not respond to the broadcasts,” a spokesperson for the U.N. Command’s Military Armistice Commission said in an email to Yonhap News Agency.
South Korean “forces then fired warning shots in a designated warning shot area to compel the [North Korean] soldiers to return to the north side” of the demarcation line.
Yonhap said the North Korean military has been working to fortify the border with South Korea since April 2024, adding barbed wire fences and anti-tank barriers near the Demilitarized Zone.