SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – A ballistic missile fired from a North Korean submarine on Wednesday flew about 500 kilometers (310 miles), the longest distance achieved by the North for such a weapon, Seoul officials said, putting all of South Korea, and possibly parts of Japan, within its striking distance.
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Last month, the US and South Korea agreed to deploy a missile defence system to counter threats from the North.
Kim issued the order for the test-fire, with the submarine rising to a depth suitable for firing and before launching the ballistic missile, the news agency said.
The flight distance, which was tracked by South Korea’s military Joint Chiefs of Staff, far exceeded any previous SLBM tests, suggesting significant progress in technical prowess.South Korea’s Yonhap news agency cited a military source as saying yesterday’s launch had been made at an acute angle to limit the missile’s range. Uses of solid propellants for its rocket engine can make it easier for the North to swiftly launch missiles, experts said.
As the news of the missile test was broadcast on a large screen outside Pyongyang’s main train station Thursday, dozens of people stood in the rain to watch. He said the three countries should show unity in tackling the problem. “We are a nuclear power and everything is ready, so we have nothing to fear”. Japanese officials said the USA missile deployment in South Korea and their ongoing joint military exercises were not mentioned at the trilateral talks.
Though the North has protested such exercises for decades, prompting regular spikes in tensions on the divided peninsula, Pyongyang has been particularly alarmed by reports that the maneuvers have recently started to include training for an invasion of the North and precision strikes, or “beheading operations”, against its top leaders.
“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. “Our country is getting more prosperous and they don’t like that, so they are stepping up their moves to stifle us”.
“They keep conducting nuclear tests and SLBMs together which means they are showing they can arm SLBMs with miniaturised nuclear warheads”, said Moon Keun-sik, a retired South Korean navy officer and an expert in submarine warfare.
South Korea’s defense ministry reported the DPRK test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile at around 5:30 a.m. local time Wednesday off the eastern coastal town of Sinpo.
North Korea has often made missile provocations ahead of or during the Seoul-Washington drill, but this year, inter-Korean tension has further flared up following the latest defection by a senior North Korean diplomat and the decision to deploy an advanced US missile defense system in South Korea. But in recent months it has carried out repeated missile launches, and is believed to be close to conducting its fifth test of a nuclear device.
The foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea criticised North Korea’s latest submarine missile test on Wednesday during their annual talks that were held amid lingering frictions over territorial disputes and wartime history.
Washington and Seoul say the military exercises Pyongyang opposes are defensive in nature.
North Korea is one of the most militarized countries in the world, with a million-man army in a nation of only 25 million people. But its development of reliable submarine-launched missiles would add weapons that are harder to detect before liftoff.
Despite the price they pay in sanctions, officials sometimes cite the example of Libya, and the killing of strongman Moammar Gadhafi, as what happens to leaders who cave in to worldwide pressure to give up their nuclear ambitions.
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The US mainland and its “operational theater in the Pacific” are now within North Korea’s “striking range”, KCNA quoted Kim as saying. Kim said the launch effectively arms the country with fully-equipped nuclear attack capability and puts the USA mainland within its striking distance.
