On Wednesday, Pyongyang successfully launched an SLBM in waters off its eastern coastal city of Sinpo, in which a missile flew 500 kilometers (310.6 miles) before falling into waters controlled by Japan. Pyongyang’s January nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch in February resulted in the tightening of sanctions against North Korea in a new UN Security Council resolution adopted in March.
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“North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats are not imaginary threats any longer, but they’re now becoming real threats”, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said of the launch.
“Nuclear or missile weapons have been developed since [North Korean founder] Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong-il”, Kim Keun-sik, a political science professor at Kyungnam University, said.
The statement referred to Wednesday’s launch as well as other North Korean ballistic missile launches since July 9.
Officials in Washington and South Korea criticized the test, and called for Pyongyang to de-escalate its ongoing missile campaign, which is meant to showcase the isolated country’s supposed military force. This threat, of course, would hinge on a North Korean submarine approaching the U.S. West Coast. Ballistic missile defense is an important part of the broader strategy of strong alliances, forward-deployed US military forces in the Pacific, and devoting sufficient resources to the USA defense budget.
Missiles of such capability could also potentially strike parts of Japan, including US military bases on the island of Okinawa, considering the operational range of North Korea’s Sinpo-class submarines, which can move about 620 miles underwater at a time, said analyst Kim Dong-yub at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.
Furthermore, while North Korea’s single GORAE-class submarine could theoretically be used to field an SLBM, Pyongyang could not count on a single prototype submarine with one to two missiles to carry out wartime missions.
“Children tended to pester [teachers] to show new, interesting videos again after their release, but we had difficulty in dealing with it”, Kim Geun Hee, a teacher at Sariwon orphanage, said in the KCTV report, according to NK News.
North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons development programs have brought heavy worldwide sanctions down on its head, but it says they are justified because of the threat posed by the USA and South Korea.
North Korea seems to be putting everything into developing SLBM as its key new asymmetrical military power, pointed out analysts.
Kim was said to have ordered the construction of the submarine at a banquet attended by scientists and persons of merit on June 22, following Pyongyang’s launch of two Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
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Despite post-Cheonan efforts, South Korean anti-submarine warfare capabilities remain an area of concern for allied military planners.
