NORTH KOREA – North Korea test-fired cruise missiles last week, as Pyongyang threatened to respond to US-South Korean military drills.

The North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watched the test via video link along with his teenage daughter from an undisclosed but remote indoor location, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The cruise missiles were launched from the Choe Hyon destroyer off Nampho on the west coast.

The missiles flew along a flight orbit above the Yellow Sea and hit designated targets, said KCNA.

“The components of our war deterrent are now being included in the very sophisticated operational system in an effective and accelerated manner continuously, and the country’s nuclear forces have made a switch to the phase of multifaceted operation,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying.

Expressing his satisfaction that the test verified the “reliability of the national integrated control system of strategic weapons,” he stressed the need to examine the military efficiency of naval automatic guns installed on the warship and presented tasks for strengthening naval power.

North Korea conducted a similar cruise missile test from the destroyer last week ahead of its commissioning.

The latest test-firing came after the US and South Korea launched the 11-day Freedom Shield exercise Monday.

Pyongyang has long denounced the allies’ combined military drills as a “rehearsal for an invasion.”