The submarine-launched ballistic missile, in the early morning darkness in the East Sea off of Sinpo, Aug. 24.
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North Korea’s “SLBM (submarine-launched ballistic missile) technology appears to have progressed”, a South Korean military official told Reuters.
North Korea’s ruler on Thursday hailed a submarine-launched missile test as “the greatest success” and said it put the USA mainland within striking distance.
North Korea said this year it had miniaturized a nuclear warhead to fit on a ballistic missile.
Kim Jong-un declared his country at the “front rank” of nuclear military powers on Thursday after the pariah state test-fired another ballistic missile, this time fired from a submarine.
“I do not guess what ridiculous remarks the USA and its followers will make about this test-fire, but I can say their rash acts will only precipitate their self-destruction”, Kim reportedly said.
But at the current rate of development, it could be able to strike targets in the region by 2020, according to 38 North, a website run by the U.S. -Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
The North named the SLBM “Pukguksong”, which means polestar in Korean. “The best way of escaping the deadly strike of the infuriated KPA [Korean People’s Army] is to refrain from hurting the dignity and security of [North Korea] with prudence and self-control”.
The sense of confidence exhibited by the North was palpable in the report.
“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.
Kim is also seen jubilantly celebrating with military aides in photographs carried by the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper.
It came on the state’s “Military First” holiday, which boasts mass dancing and outdoor concerts in celebration of the beginning of Kim Jong-Il’s Songun (military first) leadership in 1960.
But in North Korea’s state media Thursday, the apparently successful launch was cause for major celebration.
In Tokyo on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reiterated opposition to the missile-defense system in South Korea, but echoed his diplomatic counterparts in saying that China “opposes development of North Korea’s nuclear program, and any words or deeds that create tensions in the peninsula”, according to The New York Times. In an article that was published on North Korea-affairs website 38 North two days after North Korea’s SLBM test launch on April. 23, John Schilling, an American expert on missiles, predicted that North Korea’s SLBM would become a legitimate threat in 2020.
Takesada said North Korea needs to have at least four SLBM-armed submarines to successfully deploy SLBMs.
About 28,500 USA troops are based in South Korea and tens of thousands of more in Japan.
It was speculated that the North used a higher angle to shorten the missile’s range and not provoke Japan.
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the North Korean provocation an “unforgivable act” in “apparent defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions”.
