North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a “strategic cruise missile” test on Wednesday in order to show off the military’s “readiness” to launch a nuclear attack, according to state media on Friday.

The Rodong Sinmun reported that the Missile Administration launched two cruise missiles, each flying in “elliptical” routes covering around 986 miles (1,587 km) over 132 minutes.

They were carried out “to inform adversaries, who are severely threatening the security environment of the DPRK and escalating confrontational tensions, about the retaliatory capabilities of the Korean People’s Army in any space and the readiness of its various nuclear operational means,” the report said.

The test also helped “train strategic cruise missile units to become proficient in unexpected fire missions.”

Kim Jong Un called for “maintaining a thorough state of readiness for nuclear forces” and said the test was successful.

NK News analysis of state media photos and Planet Labs satellite imagery suggests the missiles struck a building on Sangchuira Island (상취라도) near Nampho off the west coast.

A different building on the island was used as a target in a cruise missile test in Feb. 2024, and the island has been developed over the last year with various other target infrastructure, satellite imagery shows.

The launch location was right outside the West Sea Barrage, on a narrow beach used for swimming by locals and sometimes foreign tourists in summer, NK News analysis shows. It is just 3.9 miles (6.3 km) away from the target building the missiles struck.

South Korea’s military had not alerted the public about detecting or tracking the missile launch in real time in the two days since the apparent test.

The ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) released a statement after North Korea published its report on Friday morning, claiming to have “detected signs of North Korea’s cruise missile launch in advance” of the test commencing around 8 a.m. KST on Wednesday, Feb. 26.

JCS said it “tracked and monitored” multiple missiles and that “detailed specifications of the missiles are currently under precise analysis by South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities.”

“Amid the current security situation, our military is closely monitoring North Korea’s various movements under the firm ROK-U.S. combined defense posture to prevent any miscalculations by North Korea, while maintaining the capability and readiness to respond overwhelmingly to any kind of provocation,” the statement added.

This week’s was North Korea’s first known missile launch since another cruise missile test in late January. State media said it involved “sea-(underwater-)to-surface strategic cruise guided weapons” and suggested that missiles were launched from underwater in an inland pond, though without publishing clear images of the launch site.

North Korea claims its line of “Hwasal” long-range strategic cruise missiles can be equipped with nuclear warheads. The weapons are designed to fly low and evade enemy detection, potentially serving a vital role in Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal amid defense improvement efforts by South Korea and Japan.

Edited by Alannah Hill

Updated on Feb. 28 at 11:46 a.m. KST with additional images from KCTV, at 2:07 p.m. with a response from ROK JCS and at 3:27 p.m. with new details about the launch location