North Korea appears to be aggressively developing the capacity to deploy a ballistic missile submarine even as it purports to continue to negotiate denuclearization with the current administration.
Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that North Korea successfully tested a new type of ballistic missile the previous day that is designed to be fired from a submarine, in a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, just ahead of a resumption of negotiations with the United States over its nuclear weapons program.
Last April, we posted the question, “Is North Korea Adding a Nuclear-Armed Ballistic Sub to its Arsenal?” We noted that There have been reports that the North Koreans have been developing Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM) since at least 2014. A new diesel-electric ballistic missile submarine, dubbed the Sinpo C, is now under construction at North Korea’s Sinpo shipyard, on the country’s east coast.
In late August, Joseph Bermudez and Victor Cha wrote in the Beyond Parallel blog of photographic evidence of the construction of a new ballistic missile submarine at the Sinpo shipyard and preliminary evidence of possible preparations for a test.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the ballistic missile was launched from the waters off Wonsan Bay on North Korea’s east coast, a development that underlined the country’s continued progress in missile development and its ever-growing military threat.
A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called the test “very concerning” and urged Washington and Pyongyang to make progress toward denuclearization in their talks.
“The launch of a ballistic missile is yet another violation of Security Council resolutions,” spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said at a regular news conference in New York.
A day earlier, North Korea announced that negotiations with the United States would formally begin Saturday, marking the first official talks since President Trump met Kim Jong Un in June.
The government of South Korea suggested the missile could have been launched from a submarine whereas US sources suggested it was launched from a barge.
David Wright, co-director of the global security program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, commented, “If flown on a standard trajectory with the same payload, that missile would have a maximum range of about 1,900 km (1,200 miles). This would classify the missile as medium-range (1,000 to 3,500 km).”
The new submarine is thought to be potentially the first operational ballistic missile submarine to join the North Korean fleet. When completed, the new sub and its newly tested missiles may be capable of bringing Pyongyang’s nukes to sea and well into the range of the continental United States.