PYONGYANG, Oct. 17 -- North Korea says it has taught a torpedo to choose its own target, and it has said almost nothing else about the weapon. The Korean Central News Agency announced on Saturday that the Academy of Defence Science, the Missile Administration and the Torpedo Weapon Research Bureau fired "a new-type superspeed precision-guided torpedo weapon system" underwater on Thursday, an account Xinhua relayed the same day.

It was the second undersea trial in two days. On Wednesday the Missile Administration test-fired two kinds of submarine-launched strategic cruise missiles in its eastern waters, KCNA said, to examine the mobilised posture of its underwater combat systems. Both announcements follow the North Korea missile launch of...