SEOUL: North Korea fired several cruise missiles on Sunday, Seoul`s military said, the latest in a series of tension-raising moves by the nuclear-armed state.

The launch comes just days after Pyongyang fired multiple cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea, which it said was a first test of a new generation of strategic cruise missiles.

Pyongyang has accelerated weapons testing in the new year, including tests of what it called an `underwater nuclear weapon system` and a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile.

`Our military detected several unidentified cruise missiles fired near waters around North Korea`s Sinpo area at 8am (2300 GMT) today,` the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The JCS said the launch was under analysis by South Korean and US intelligence authorities, adding it was `closely monitoring North Korea`s additional movements and activities.

Unlike their ballistic counterparts, the testing of cruise missiles is not banned under current UN sanctions against Pyongyang.

Cruise missiles tend to be jet-propelled and fly at a lower altitude than more sophisticated ballistic missiles, making them harder to detect andintercept.

On Thursday, North Korea said it had carried out its first test of a new generation of strategic cruise missiles it is developing, the Pulhwasal-3-31 a day earlier.

The test was `a process of constant updating of the weapon system and a regular and obligatory activity,` the state news agency KCNA said. It did not specify how many missiles were fired.

`The test-fire had no impact on the security of neighboring countries and has nothing to do with the regional situation,` the agency said.

Deteriorating ties Recent months have seen a sharp deterioration in ties between the two Koreas, with both sides jettisoning key tension-reducing agreements, ramping up frontier security, and conducting live-fire drills alongthe border.

Earlier this month, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared the South his country`s `principal enemy`, jettisoned agencies dedi-cated to reunification and outreach and threatened war over `even 0.001 mm` of territorial infringement.

In Seoul, President Yoon Suk Yeol told his cabinet that should the nuclear-armed North carry out a provocation, South Korea would hit back with a response `multiple times stronger`, pointing to his military`s `overwhelming response capabilities`.

At Pyongyang`s year-end policy meetings, Kim threatened a nuclear attack on the South and called for a build-up of his country`s military arsenal ahead of armed conflict he warned could `break out any time`.

In January, the North launched a solid-fuel hypersonic missile, just days after Pyongyang staged livefire exercises near the country`s tense maritime border with South Korea, which prompted counterexercises and evacuation orders for some border islands belonging to the South.

Kim also successfully put a spy satellite into orbit late last year, after receiving what Seoul said was Russian help, in exchange for arms transfers for Moscow`s war in Ukraine.-AFP