NKorea on latest long-range cruise missile test

North Korea on Friday said it test-fired long-range cruise missiles in waters off its eastern coast a day earlier. The launches came as the United States and South Korea held a simulated military exercise in Washington, D.C.North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said that Thursday’s launches were aimed at verifying the reliability of the missiles and the rapid-response capabilities of the unit that operates those weapons.

The agency said the exercise involved four missiles, which flew for nearly three hours, drawing oval and figure-eight shaped patterns above the sea, and showed that they can hit targets 2,000 kilometers away.