The Academy of Defence Science of the DPRK successfully conducted the test-fires of newly-developed long-range cruise missiles on September 11 and 12.

Pak Jong Chon, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau and secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, and Kim Jong Sik and Jon Il Ho, deputy department directors of the WPK Central Committee, watched the test-fires.

Leading officials and scientists in the defence science sector took part in the test-fires.

The development of long-range cruise missile, a strategic weapon of great significance in meeting the key target of the five-year plan for developing the defence science and the weapon system set forth at the 8th Congress of the Party, has been pushed forward according to the scientific and reliable weapon system development process for the past two years and, in this course, detailed partial tests of missile, scores of static firing tests of motors, various flight tests, control and guidance tests, warhead power tests, etc. were conducted successfully.

The development of this weapon system that has been powerfully pushed forward as a crucial work under the special concern of the Party Central Committee has a strategic significance of possessing another effective deterrent means for more reliably guaranteeing the security of our state and strongly containing the military manoeuvres of the hostile forces against the DPRK.

The test-fires were held successfully.

The launched long-range cruise missiles travelled for 7 580 seconds along an oval and pattern-8 flight orbits in the air above the land and territorial waters of the DPRK and hit targets 1 500 km away.

The test-fires showed that the technical indices such as the thrust power of the newly-developed turbine-blast motor, the missiles' flight manoeuvrability and the terminal guidance hit accuracy by the combined guidance mode met the requirements of designs.

In all, the efficiency and practicality of the weapon system operation was confirmed to be excellent.

Pak Jong Chon, upon authorization of the Party Central Committee, conveyed warm congratulations and thanks to the defence scientists and workers in the munitions industry for succeeding in the development of the long-range cruise missiles.

Noting that the achievement is a bright fruition of our Party's policy of prioritizing defence science and technology and a signal success made in the defence sector whose members are all out for implementing the decisions made at the 8th Congress of the Party, he stressed that it is another demonstration of the tremendous capabilities of the defence science and technology and the munitions industry of the country.

He underscored the need for the defence science sector to go all out to increase the defence capabilities, the war deterrence of the country, and keep making achievements in meeting the grand and long-term targets of securing war deterrence set forth at the 8th Congress of the Party.