According to KCNA, Kim watched from an observation post as North Korean officials and scientists conducted the test-firing, which the agency said was carried out without “any adverse impact” on neighboring countries.
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In this undated photo distributed on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, visits the site of a submarine-launched missile test at an un.
North Korea’s first successful test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) on August 24 increases the likelihood that North Korea’s SLBMs will become a threat sooner than expected.
After North Korea’s previous missile test, the US also proposed a press statement, but diplomats said China insisted on language linking it to USA plans to place a high-tech missile defense system in South Korea.
Japan confirmed the missile reached its air defence identification zone – a first for a North Korean missile. 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.
The test showed that the solid-fuel missile’s control and guidance system, as well as the atmospheric re-entry of the warhead all met operational requirements, KCNA said. Kim also said it is undeniable that the US mainland and key operational areas in the Pacific were within North Korea’s striking distance.
“There were many people who said North Korea will never achieve its nuclear goals”, said Moon Keun-sik, an analyst at the Korea Defense and Security Forum.
A proven SLBM system would take North Korea’s nuclear strike threat 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.
The Security Council held a closed-door meeting late Wednesday to discuss the latest launch, but the debate was complicated by Chinese opposition to plans for the deployment of an advanced USA missile defense system in South Korea, The Associated Press reported. The most recent KN-11 launches – three in the past year – were all deemed failures because the missiles exploded at launch or traveled only a short distance.
Experts said that had the altitude been adjusted to the normal level, the SLBM could have flown as far as 2,000 kilometers, far enough to reach USA military bases in Okinawa.
The success of this launch is likely to accelerate that timetable, but does not mean that North Korea will be able to deploy the missile immediately.
“There was a general sense of condemnation by most members of the council and therefore we will have to see how we would then be phrasing the press statement”, said Ramlan bin Ibrahim from Malaysia, which now holds the council’s presidency. North Korea’s third sub-launched missile test this year revealed that North Korea is making surprising strides in the development of technology required for missile launches at sea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is pictured smiling during a test-fire of strategic submarine-launched ballistic missile.
But in North Korea’s state media Thursday, the apparently successful launch was cause for major celebration.
State Department spokesman Elizabeth Trudeau said in a statement that the USA strongly condemned the launch and called on North Korea to “refrain from actions and rhetoric that further raise tensions in the region”.
The council held the urgent consultations on the event, at the request of the U.S. and Japan. Some civilian experts have said they believe the North already has the technology to put warheads on shorter-range missiles that could strike South Korea and Japan.
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The incident comes as Pyongyang ramps up military tensions between North and South with a series of armed provocations over the past 12 months.
