FILE – A passenger walks past a TV screen broadcasting a news report on North Korea’s submarine-launched ballistic missile fired from North Korea’s east coast port of Sinpo, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 24, 2016. South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned of possible North Korean provocations this week, calling the latest defection a “serious fracture” within the North Korean regime.
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In the overall standings North Korea placed 34th, 26 places behind their South Korean counterparts who were 8th on the table. To save you some questionable Google searches, Manbang means “everywhere” or “every direction” in Korean and if you need more information see this site first.
Experts said the SLBM could have the capability to fly as far as 2,000 kilometers, which would put the US military base in Okinawa in range.
South Korea’s military condemned the launch but acknowledged it was an improvement over previous tests of similar missiles.
It’s also extremely unlikely they could get a submarine within range of the U.S. coast: The new North Korean missile only appears to have a range of about 600 miles.
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting Thursday to consider issuing a statement on the missile launch, according to the Associated Press.
“The only realistic way to counter SLBMs is to deploy a nuclear-powered submarine so they can maintain constant watch on a North Korean submarine base”, said Moon Keun-sik, an expert at the Korea Defense and Security Forum said.
North Korea seems to be putting everything into developing SLBM as its key new asymmetrical military power, pointed out analysts.
North Korea has long denounced the military drill as a rehearsal for invasion, but Seoul and Washington said that the exercise is defensive in nature. He says, for example, North Korea could threaten other countries in order to secure its objectives.
North Koreans are also quick to point out that, although their country has received military assistance in the past from the Soviet Union and China, which helped it stave off the US during the 1950-53 Korean War, it no longer has any foreign troops based on its soil.
North Korea’s in a good mood these days.
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“We’re not going to predict the future but we would welcome steps by North Korea to ease tensions and to not take these kinds of provocative actions”, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told Business Insider during a press briefing.
