China says it has successfully tested new type of missile

Chinese rocket forces have conducted a combat test of a new type of missile in the Bohai Sea, according to a statement from the Information Bureau of China's Ministry of National Defense.

"The test achieved the expected result", said the statement, without disclosing the exact date.

It said the test was created to boost the military's capacity to fight threats to national security.

The Chinese weapon tested was likely a DF-26 intermediate range missile being developed to sink warships, including USA aircraft carriers, said Song Zhongping, an expert on military affairs and commentator for Hong Kong's Phoenix TV.

While no other country has claims in the busy Bohai Sea, the drills come amid heightened tension on the Korean peninsula, including Chinese anger at the deployment of the USA anti-missile defense system THAAD in South Korea last month.

The new leader vowed to sincerely consult with the United States and China to resolve the issue on the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system.

Hong Kong-based military analyst Liang Guoliang said the missiles might have been launched from northwest China, probably in Xinjiang or Gansu, with the warheads landing in Bohai. "It was likely the advanced intermediate-range DF-26B, a modified version of the DF-26", Liang said.

Zhou Chenming, from the Knowfar Institute for Strategic and Defence Studies, a Chinese think tank, said: "The test might involve variants of new missile types, including the DF-21, DF-26 and other types of Dongfeng series missiles".

"It hasn't much to do with THAAD directly, but it is a kind of warning" to South Korea and the U.S., Song said.

The US conducted joint naval exercises with South Korea in late April, when a US aircraft carrier group led by the USS Carl Vinson, including a guided-missile cruiser, the USS Lake Champlain, as well as two destroyers, entered the Sea of Japan through the Tsushima Strait.