NK preparing for cruise missile strikes: RFA

The North Korean army is repairing protective walls for gallery positions to brace for possible cruise missile strikes after witnessing such US attacks on Syria last month, a US broadcaster said Thursday.

The North's armed forces ministry ordered the army to take steps to protect gallery strongholds from air raids in mid-April, Radio Free Asia said, citing the Osaka-based North Korea specialist news organ Asia Press. 

The USS Ross fires a tomahawk missile on April 7, 2017, from the Mediterranean Sea. The United States blasted a Syrian air base with a barrage of cruise missiles in retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons attack against civilians. (AP-Yonhap)

Early last month, the US military launched over 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield in response to the Bashar al-Assad regime's alleged use of chemical weapons on civilians.

"North Korea seems to be very aware of the US attack on Syria," Jiro Ishimaru of Asia Press said, adding that the media outlet's North Korean source clearly said "preparations against cruise missiles."

In particular, the ministry's instruction called for the army to remove strongholds made of stones as they can cause additional casualties when they are broken into pieces by missiles and instead make them with gunnysacks filled with earth or sand, Ishimaru said. (Yonhap)