SEOUL, South Korea, Jan 26, (AP): North Korea said Sunday it tested a cruise missile system, its third known weapons display this year, and vowed "the toughest” response to what it called the escalation of US-South Korean military drills that target the North. The moves suggested North Korea will likely maintain its run of weapons tests and its confrontational stance against the US for now, even though President Donald Trump said he intends to reach out to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The official Korean Central News Agency said Kim observed the test of sea-to-surface strategic cruise guided weapons on Saturday. The term "strategic” implies the missiles are nuclear-capable. KCNA said the missiles hit their targets after traveling 1,500-kilometer (932-mile) -long elliptical and figure-eight-shaped flight patterns, but that couldn't be independently verified.

KCNA cited Kim as saying that North Korea’s war deterrence capabilities "are being perfected more thoroughly” and affirming that his country will make "strenuous efforts” to defend stability "on the basis of more powerfully developed military muscle.” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea had launched "several” cruise missiles toward its western waters from an inland area at around 4 pm on Saturday.

It said South Korean maintains a readiness to "overwhelmingly” repel any provocations by North Korea in conjunction with its military alliance with the U.S. In a separate statement carried by KCNA on Sunday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry criticized the US for committing "serious military provocations aiming at” North Korea with a series of military exercises with South Korea this month.

"The reality stresses that the DPRK should counter the US with the toughest counteraction from A to Z as long as it refuses the sovereignty and security interests of the DPRK and this is the best option for dealing with the US,” the Foreign Ministry statement said. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the abbreviation of its formal name.

The Foreign Ministry warning was in line with Kim's vows to implement the "toughest” anti-US policy during a year-end political meeting. North Korea views US military training with South Korea as invasion rehearsals though Washington and Seoul have repeatedly said their drills are defensive in nature. In recent years, the US and South Korea have expanded their military exercises in response to North Korea's advancing nuclear program.