North Korea said on Wednesday that it conducted a launch drill of its Hwasal-2 strategic cruise missile the previous day.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) said that the North Korean People’s Army carried out the drill in the country’s western waters on Tuesday.

The KCNA said that the purpose of the launch was to check the military’s rapid counterattack posture and improve its strategic striking capability, adding that there was no adverse effect on the security of neighboring countries.

The report appears to indicate that North Korea has completed the development of the Hwasal-2 type and deployed it to front-line units.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Tuesday that the North fired multiple cruise missiles into the Yellow Sea around 7 a.m., the third cruise missile launch in the past week after test-launches of the new “Pulhwasal-3-31” were conducted last Wednesday and Sunday.

The latest launch on Tuesday was also presumed to be of the same type of missile, but the North has claimed that it was the Hwasal-2 cruise missile, a long-range cruise missile recently developed along with the Hwasal-1.

North Korea last launched the Hwasal-2 last March after first testing it in January 2022.