North tests sub-launch missile
SEOUL: North Korea fired a suspected submarine-launched ballistic missile into the sea yesterday, the South’s military said, the nuclear-armed country’s latest advance in weapons technology and one that could give it a secondstrike capability.
The test came with both Koreas building up their weapons capabilities in what could become an arms race on the peninsula, and with the Washington-Pyongyang dialogue at a standstill.
The “short-range ballistic missile suspected to be an SLBM” was fired from Sinpo into the sea east of the peninsula, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Sinpo is a major naval shipyard with satellite photographs previously showing submarines at the facility, and the statement added: “South Korean and US intelligence are closely analysing for additional detail.”
The key question will be whether it was fired from a working submarine, or an underwater platform or barge. A proven submarine-based missile capability would take the North’s arsenal to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and a second-strike capability in the event of an attack on its military bases.
North Korea is banned from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles under UN Security Council resolutions and is subject to multiple sets of sanctions as a result.
Pyongyang is known to be developing an SLBM and has carried out two previous underwater launches in 2016 and 2019, although the Pentagon and analysts say those were likely to have been from a submerged platform with the system in its early stages.
“The Kim [Jong-un] regime is developing submarine-launched ballistic missiles because it wants a more survivable nuclear deterrent able to blackmail its neighbours and the United States,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“North Korea’s SLBM is probably far from being operationally deployed with a nuclear warhead,” he cautioned, “but Kim cannot politically afford appearing to fall behind in a regional arms race.”
South Korea last month tested its first SLBM, putting it among the elite group of nations that have demonstrated proven technology, and also unveiled a supersonic cruise missile.
Yesterday’s launch comes after North Korea in recent weeks tested a longrange cruise missile, a train-launched weapon and what it said was a hypersonic warhead, sparking global concern. It also mounted a rare weapons exhibition, showcasing the gigantic international ballistic missile revealed at a military parade last year.
Pyongyang says it needs its arsenal to defend itself against a possible US invasion.