North Korea tested new 'submarine-launched ballistic missile' — KCNA
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea successfully tested a "new type" of submarine-launched ballistic missile, state media reported Wednesday as the nuclear-armed country pursues ever more improved weapons.
The device had "lots of advanced control guidance technologies", the official Korean Central News Agency said, adding that it was fired from the same vessel that the North used in its first SLBM test five years ago.
It did not mention leader Kim Jong Un, indicating he was not present for the event.
Pictures in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed the black and white missile emerging from calm waters trailing a column of fire and smoke, and a surfacing submarine.
Analysts said the images appeared to be one of the missiles Pyongyang put on show at a defence exhibition last week.
It was "a bit of flex to launch a new, previously untested missile from a submarine for the first test," said Ankit Panda of the Carnegie Endowment.
But it was derived from a common platform used in other missiles, he tweeted, "and they're pretty confident it won't go boom".
A proven submarine-based missile capability would take the North's arsenal to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and a second-strike capability in the event of an attack on its military bases.
But the use of the same "8.24 Yongung" submarine as it tested five years ago indicates that it may only have made limited progress in its launch capabilities.
According to a 2018 analysis by the US-based Nuclear Threat Initiative think tank, the experimental vessel "appears capable of firing a single ballistic missile" and has to surface every few days, limiting its operational usefulness.
And the Pentagon and analysts say that the North's last SLBM test in 2019 is likely to have been fired from a submerged platform.
Tuesday's test, carried out near Sinpo, the site of a major naval dockyard, came as both Koreas build up their weapons capabilities in what could become an arms race on the peninsula, and with Washington-Pyongyang dialogue at a standstill.
Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo condemned the launch, with all three describing it as a ballistic missile.
The missile travelled around 590 kilometres (365 miles) at a maximum altitude of about 60 kilometres, an informed South Korean source told AFP.
The White House stressed that the action was a threat which only underscored the "urgent" need for dialogue with Pyongyang, with spokeswoman Jen Psaki telling a press briefing: "Our offer remains to meet anywhere, anytime, without preconditions."
In a reflection of international concern, diplomats told AFP that the United Nations Security Council would hold an emergency closed-door meeting Wednesday on North Korea.
Weapons exhibition
Pyongyang is banned from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles under Security Council resolutions, and is subject to multiple sets of sanctions as a result.
It says it needs its arsenal to defend against possible US invasion.
Tuesday's launch came after North Korea — which invaded its neighbour in 1950 — in recent weeks tested a long-range cruise missile, a train-launched weapon and what it said was a hypersonic warhead, sparking global concern.
For its part, South Korea last month tested its first SLBM, which put it among the elite group of nations that have demonstrated proven technology, and also unveiled a supersonic cruise missile.
Pyongyang this month also mounted a rare weapons exhibition, showcasing the gigantic intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) revealed last year.
Opening the display, leader Kim — who has overseen rapid progress in the North's military technology — blamed Washington for tensions, dismissing US assertions that it does not have hostile intentions.
Kim met three times with former US president Donald Trump, who boasted of stopping a war but failed to reach agreement on ending North Korea's nuclear program.
Talks essentially stalled after a Kim-Trump summit in Hanoi collapsed in 2019.
South Korean officials were briefing the White House Thursday on the outcome of their pathfinding meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Seoul has already publicized that North Korea offered talks with the United States on denuclearization and normalizing ties, a potential diplomatic opening after a year of escalating tensions over the North's nuclear and missile tests. The rival Koreas also agreed to hold a leadership summit in late April.
Top Trump administration officials were getting a chance to hear firsthand from South Korean national security director, Chung Eui-yong, who led the delegation that went to Pyongyang. — Associated Press
South Korea's defense ministry says Thursday it was "closely monitoring" a North Korean nuclear reactor site after local media reported its operations had been temporarily suspended, potentially to extract weapons-grade plutonium.
The Donga Ilbo newspaper reports earlier in the day that intelligence sources in Seoul and Washington had detected signs the five-megawatt reactor in Yongbyon had temporarily stopped operations late last month.
The suspension could be an indication that spent fuel rods are being reprocessed to extract plutonium for use in nuclear weapons, the report cited a government source as saying. — AFP
State media reports that North Korea's rubber-stamp legislature has enshrined the country's status as a nuclear weapons power in the constitution.
"The DPRK's nuclear force-building policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one is allowed to flout with anything," leader Kim Jong Un said at a meeting of the State People's Assembly that was held Tuesday and Wednesday, the KCNA news agency says.
DPRK is the acronym for the country's formal name. — AFP
State news agency KCNA reports that North Korea announced it had built a "tactical nuclear attack submarine" as part of its effort to strengthen its naval force.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over the unveiling ceremony on Wednesday, saying the new sub was part of a "push forward with the nuclear weaponization of the Navy in the future", according to KCNA.
The launching of submarine No. 841, named the Hero Kim Kun Ok, "heralded the beginning of a new chapter for bolstering up the naval force of the DPRK", the KCNA report said, referring to the country by the abbreviation of its formal name. — AFP
State-controlled media reports Sunday that North Korea staged a "simulated tactical nuclear attack" drill at the weekend with mock atomic warheads attached to two long-range cruise missiles that were test-fired into the ocean.
The Korean Central News Agency says the operation early Saturday was a "counteraction drill" in response to joint military activity by US and South Korean forces that KCNA said has escalated tensions in the region.
"A firing drill for simulated tactical nuclear attack was conducted at dawn of September 2 to warn the enemies of the actual nuclear war danger," KCNA reports. — AFP
Seoul's military says North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles off its west coast on Saturday, the latest in a string of recent Pyongyang military actions.
The launches come three days after the North launched a pair of short-range ballistic missiles as part of a "tactical nuclear strike drill" prompted by the annual US-South Korean Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises, which always infuriate the reclusive regime.
Pyongyang views such the drills as a rehearsal for invasion while the two allies say they are defensive in nature. — AFP
- Latest
- Trending
