South Korea strengthens its military defense by developing a supersonic cruise missile capable of aiming at ground targets such as coastal artillery batteries and long-range artillery of North Korea, a government officials announced on Monday.

"The think tanks like the Agency for Defense Development have been developing a supersonic anti-ship cruise missile for some years now. They are expected to complete development in three to four years at the earliest," says the government official in briefing to the press.

But the official was also quick to say the upgrade of military weaponry is only a move to defend its territory more efficiently now that neighboring countries are also enhancing their national defense.

"We are developing a supersonic cruise missile to cope with the threat from the navies of neighboring big powers rather from North Korea," Chosunilbo quoted the official who wishes to remain anonymous.

Korea's newspaper The Chosunilbo says the missile will be used against Aegies ships, aircraft carriers, and up-to-date destroyers. It is a smaller version of Russia's Yakhont missile and can speed up to Mach 2.5 with 250 to 300 kilometer range.

South Korea's own Haesung ship-to-ship missiles and the American-manufactured Harpoon anti-ship missiles are slower and easily defeated by machine guns and short-range anti-aircraft missiles.

The government official is confident that the supersonic missile is very hard, if not impossible to intercept because of its high speed that can soar a few meters above the surface, The ChosunIlbo reported.