The UN Security Council met for two hours on Wednesday to discuss the test-firing and agreed to consider a statement condemning the launch.
Advertisement
Unlike its 1998 Taepodong long-range missile test, Wednesday’s launch did not, however, see the DPRK projectile pass over physical Japanese territory.
North Korea warned of a nuclear strike against South Korea and the United States as the allies began their annual military drills Monday aimed at countering potential threats from Pyongyang.
The report by 38 North said the hermit kingdom could still face significant technological challenges, such as building a new class submarine to carry the missile.
South Korean military officials said the test indicates that the missile could fly 2,500 km at an ordinary trajectory.
The KCNA said Kim watched from an observation post as the test-firing happened, which the agency said was carried out without “any adverse impact” on neighboring countries.
TV screens show file footage of a similar North Korea’s ballistic missile that North Korea claimed to have launched from underwater at the Yongsan Electronic store in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency cited a military source as saying Wednesday’s launch had been made at an acute angle to limit the missile’s range.
“While there are still a lot of questions about the details, this test certainly seems to have been successful”, said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California. The most recent KN-11 launches – three in the a year ago – were all deemed failures because the missiles exploded at launch or traveled only a short distance.
North Korea has threatened nuclear retaliation to a joint U.S.
North Korea’s state-run media Thursday boasted of the success of a submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test from waters off the eastern city of Sinpo a day before, saying the launch demonstrated the “tremendous power” of a nation now “fully equipped with nuclear attack capability”.
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.
A cyclists rides past national flags flown to mark the celebration of the “Military First” holiday in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Thursday.
The latest launch was widely condemned.
Advertisement
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon censured the test-fire as “deeply troubling” and in defiance of the “united call of the worldwide community to reverse its course” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Outside experts say the North doesn’t yet have a reliable long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the continental USA, but they acknowledge the North has been making steady progress on its weapons programs and could one day acquire such a weapon. But Masao Kobayashi, a former Maritime Self-Defense Force submarine commander, said North Korean subs have not yet reached that point, especially in terms of noise level.
