North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a test-fire of a submarine-launched ballistic missile and declared it “the greatest success” that put the country in the “front rank” of nuclear military powers, official media reported on Thursday.
Advertisement
If North Korea achieved that goal, it would complicate ballistic missile defense planning and operations being sought by South Korea and the US, he also warned.
North Korea is building a new bigger class of submarine than the existing Sinpo-class, and the new project seems to have been kicked off several years ago, Joseph Bermudez, co-founder and chief analytic officer of AllSource Analysis, said at a briefing organized by 38 North.
The United Nations Security Council was holding emergency closed consultations on the launch late Wednesday afternoon at the request of the United States and Japan.
South Korea’s military said the missile, launched in the early morning from a submarine in the East Sea (Sea of Japan), flew about 500 kilometers (310 miles) – a substantial improvement on similar tests in the past.
Bermudez said the latest missile appears to have been fired underwater from a submarine, rather than from a submersible test barge, which he said may have been the case for the North’s SLBM test last December.
The US mainland and its “operational theater in the Pacific” are now within North Korea’s “striking range”, KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
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.
The South Korean and USA militaries said the missile was sacked from near the coastal city of Sinpo, where a submarine base is located.
According to Yonhap, the missile could have flown over 1,000 kilometers (over 620 miles) if it were fired at a regular angle.
Many outside experts say North Korea doesn’t yet have a functioning long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the continental US, but they acknowledge that the North has been making steady progress in its weapons programs and could one day develop such a weapon. The U.S. Strategic Command statement said the launch did not pose a threat to North America, but the U.S. military “remains vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations”.
North Korea’s test-firing of a missile from a submarine towards Japan is “deeply troubling” and undermines stability on the Korean peninsula, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday.
Earlier this month, North Korea fired a land-launched ballistic missile directly into Japanese-controlled waters for the first time, drawing an outraged response from Tokyo.
The two-week long Ulchi Freedom Guardian command and control exercise kicked off Monday, with tens of thousands of US and South Korean forces participating. -South Korea military drill in a statement from the country’s Foreign Ministry via state news agency KCNA Monday.
Advertisement
About 28,500 USA troops are based in South Korea and tens of thousands of more in Japan.
