North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected the test-firing of long-range strategic cruise missiles involving units operating "tactical nukes" this week aimed at strengthening the country's war deterrence, Pyongyang's state propaganda said Thursday.

On Wednesday, the North fired two long-range strategic cruise missiles that flew for "10,234 seconds along an oval and pattern-8 flight orbits in the sky above the West Sea of Korea and clearly hit the target 2,000 km away," the official Korean Central News Agency said in report.

Kim expressed satisfaction over the "high reaction capabilities of our nuclear combat forces which proved again their full preparedness for actual war to bring the enemies under their control at a blow through the unconditional, mobile, precise and powerful counterstrike by any weapon system, the KCNA said.

JAPAN CONCERNED
In Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a press conference that if North Korea's report is true, its missiles "would threaten peace and stability in the region," adding, "We are concerned" about Pyongyang's move.

Japan's Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said at a parliamentary committee session that Pyongyang is "believed to already possess miniaturized nuclear weapons able to fit onto ballistic missile warheads with enough range to attack our nation."