(ANSA) - SEUL, OCTOBER 19 - The official North Korean news agency, the KCNA, confirmed the South Korean military's reports yesterday about the launch of a missile from a submarine, which took place yesterday morning near a Sinpo shipyard, without specify whether leader Kim Jong-un attended the test.
The black and white images of the daily Rodong Sinmun show the missile emerging from the sea followed by a column of fire and smoke, and a surfacing submarine.
Proven submarine-based missile capability would bring the Northern arsenal to a new level, allowing for deployment well beyond the Korean peninsula and second-strike capability in the event of an attack on its military bases. The use of the same '8.24 Yongung' submarine tested for five years indicates that it may have made only limited progress in its launch capabilities.
According to a 2018 analysis by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the experimental ship "appears capable of firing a single ballistic missile" and must emerge every few days, limiting its operation.
The Pentagon and analysts say it is likely that the last Northern SLBM test in 2019 was fired from a submerged platform.
The test comes as both Koreas are developing their weapons capacity in what could become an arms race on the peninsula and with the Washington-Pyongyang dialogue stalled.
(HANDLE).
