Kim said the test-firing has proved the Pyongyang “joined the front rack of the military powers fully equipped with nuclear attack capability”.
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“This system is still in development, but North Korea is clearly making progress”, Lewis told AFP.
The North’s missile tests this year include a launch from a submarine last month that appeared to have failed, according to South Korea’s military.
North Korea also launched a SLBM from a submarine in April.
The South Korean navy chief has ordered Seoul’s forces to be in full combat readiness to counter any sea-based provocation from North Korea. 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. 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.
Wednesday’s launch came two days after the US and South Korea began their 12-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises, prompting North Korean threats of retaliation for the military drills, which it views as an invasion rehearsal.
Pyongyang had been threatening to vent its fury over the exercises – and over South Korea’s decision to host a USA anti-missile unit – so Wednesday’s launch did not exactly come as a surprise.
Wednesday’s launch comes two days after the US and South Korea began their 12-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises, prompting North Korean threats of retaliation.
About 28,500 USA troops are based in South Korea to help deter potential aggression from North Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
The SLBM was sacked at a high trajectory powered by a solid fuel engine, the KCNA said, claiming that the test demonstrated its “perfect” mastering of core technologies. It said the North had mastered SLBM technology “in a short span of time”, and through the successful launch the country demonstrated “inexhaustible muscle”.
North Korea fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) yesterday, which flew about 500km (300 miles).
North Korea has become further isolated after a January nuclear test, its fourth, and the launch of a long-range rocket in February which brought tightened United Nations sanctions.
Japan confirmed the missile reached its air defence identification zone – a first for a North Korean missile. Considering that this missile managed to achieve flight during the launch, many experts believe that the rockets’ two stages separated successfully.
Military officials say the SLBM was shot at a high angle and if fired properly it could well have traveled more than one thousand kilometers.
Deputy Russian UN Ambassador Petr Iliichev said the United States would circulate a draft press statement.
An unnamed USA official said it detected and tracked what it believed to be a KN-11 ballistic missile.
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The UN Security Council met for two hours on Wednesday to discuss the test-firing and agreed to consider a statement condemning the launch.
