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

Leading officials and scientists in the field of the national defence science took part in the test-launches.

The development of the long-range cruise missile, a strategic weapon of great significance in meeting the key target of the five-year plan for the development of 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 tests of missile parts, scores of engine ground thrust tests, various flight tests, control and guidance tests, warhead power tests, etc. were conducted with success.

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 holds strategic significance of possessing another effective deterrence means for more reliably guaranteeing the security of our state and strongly containing the military maneuvers of the hostile forces against the DPRK.

The test flights were successfully held.

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

The test launches showed that the technical indices such as the thrust power of the newly developed turbine-blast engine, the missiles' navigation control and the end guided hit accuracy by the combined guided 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 scientists in the field of defence science and the workers in the munitions field for succeeding in the development of the long-range cruise missiles.

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 field whose members are all out for implementing the decisions made at the 8th Congress of the Party, he noted. This is another great manifestation of the tremendous capabilities of the defence science and technology and the munitions industry of our country, he added.

He stressed the need for the field of the national defence science 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.