North Korea has said the missiles it had fired early Saturday were long-range cruise missiles.

The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) said on Sunday that the ruling Workers' Party's central military commission ordered a military exercise on deterring the enemies' scheme for a war of aggression, in an apparent reference to Seoul and Washington's Ulchi Freedom Shield drills.

The KCNA said a firing drill of a simulated tactical nuclear attack was conducted by North Korean People's Army's western unit armed with strategic cruise missiles to issue a warning over a nuclear crisis.

It said the missile unit fired two long-range strategic cruise missiles from the mouth of Chongchon River toward the Yellow Sea, which flew one-thousand-500 kilometers for seven-thousand-672 to seven-thousand-681 seconds before detonating at a preset altitude of 150 meters above the target.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, in response, refuted the North's claim that the missile tests were successful, saying it has been exaggerated, with an official telling Yonhap News that the South Korean military’s analysis showed that not all the firings were successful.

[Photo : YONHAP News]