South Korean Air Force tested this Friday Taurus cruise missiles For the first time in seven years, a new sample of military muscle at a time marked by the recent announcement of North Korea that he cuts the roads and railways connecting the South after declaring the neighboring country as his main enemy.
F-15 fighters fired the projectiles that traveled 400 kilometers until hitting the simulated target, as an Air Force source explains to the Yonhap agency.
The last time South Korea conducted live-fire maneuvers using these missiles was in response to Pyongyang’s sixth – and so far final – nuclear test in 2017. September 2017.
At the speed of sound
This air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) is a long-range projectile with stealth capabilities that It reaches almost the speed of sound.
It is a weapon Seoul considers specifically designed to hit key targets in North Korea, including bunkers. in a few minutes.
The tests were carried out last Tuesday and Thursday in the Yellow Sea, according to the aforementioned source.
Precisely, the South’s Ministry of Unification, in charge of relations with the North, also reported today that a North Korean citizen arrived in the South on September 17, crossing the disputed de facto maritime border located in the Yellow Sea, in what marks the third such defection in recent months.
The focus these days is precisely on Northern Limit Line (NLL), which serves to divide the waters of the two Koreas on the western flank of the peninsula.
However, it is a border that Pyongyang rejects because it was drawn without consensus by the U.S.-led UN command in 1953 and many believe the constitutional amendment that the North Korean Parliament approved this week could have future consequences on the surrounding region. the NLL, given that the leader Kim Jong Un He called for redefining territorial boundaries in Magna Carta.
Last Wednesday, the North Korean army informed the UN command by telephone that it had launched an operation to Roads and railways “completely cut” which connect to the South and “fortify the affected areas” in apparent response to the aforementioned constitutional amendment, the exact contents of which have not yet been revealed by North Korean media.
