North Korea says Kim supervised latest rocket launcher test

North Korea said Saturday its leader Kim Jong Un supervised another test-firing of a new multiple rocket launcher system that could potentially enhance the country's ability to strike targets in South Korea and US military bases there.

The report by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency came a day after South Korea's military said it detected North Korea firing projectiles twice into the sea off its eastern coast in its third round of weapons tests in just over a week.

Experts say the North's increased testing activity is aimed at ramping up pressure on Washington and Seoul over stalled nuclear negotiations with the United States and planned U.S.-South Korea military exercises, and that its weapons displays could intensify in the coming months if progress in talks isn't made.

North Korea has said Kim supervised the first test of the same rocket artillery system on Wednesday.

KCNA said Kim expressed "great satisfaction" over Friday's tests, which it said confirmed the system's "altitude control level flight performance, track changing capability, accuracy of hitting a target and warhead explosion power of the guided ordnance rocket."
South Korea's military had also concluded the weapons North Korea tested on Wednesday are ballistic missiles and maintained its assessment even after the North described them as a newly developed "large-caliber multiple launch guided rocket system."
The spokesperson said the North's unilateral suspension of nuclear and intercontinental range ballistic missile tests, announced by Kim last year amid a diplomatic outreach to Washington, was based on "goodwill and consideration for a dialogue power."
President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wasn't worried about the weapons recently tested by North Korea, calling them "short-range missiles" that were "very standard."