Seoul, Washington seek ways to counter NK’s SLBM threat

South Korea and U.S. forces are stepping up efforts to better counter the growing threat from North Korea’s submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) that can disrupt the balance of power in Northeast Asia, the Navy said Sunday.

The Navy said Rear Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of the U.S. Navy Region Korea, held talks with his counterpart from the South Korean Navy Fleet Command in Busan late last week to discuss Pyongyang’s submarine threat and joint efforts to counter such developments.

“At the South Korea-U.S. submarine warfare working group talks, officials from the two countries exchanged views on all aspects of North Korea’s submarine capabilities and how best to respond to them in the most effective manner,” the Navy said.

In addition, the allies agreed that the North’s SLBMs posed immediate challenges to their national security and called for redoubled efforts to strengthen anti-submarine and anti-ballistic missile training.

SLBMs are a particular challenge because they are very hard to detect before they are launched from a submarine, making it that much more difficult knock them out of the sky before they hit their targets.

Pyongyang launched three SLBMs this year, most recently on Aug. 24, when one missile flew 500km and landed in a part of the East Sea within Japan’s Air Defense Identification Zone.