North Korea on Thursday said that it successfully test-fired a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), boasting that the success “ushered in a new phase” in its self-defence capabilities just two days before resuming nuclear talks with the US.
The move marks a significant escalation from the short-range tests Pyongyang conducted since May.
The North’s Academy of Defence Science succeeded in test-firing the “new-type SLBM Pukguksong-3” in the waters off Wonsan Bay of the East Sea on Wednesday, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
“The test-firing scientifically and technically confirmed the key tactical and technical indexes of the newly-designed ballistic missile and had no adverse impact on the security of neighbouring countries,” KCNA said.
“The successful new-type SLBM test-firing comes to be of great significance as it ushered in a new phase in containing the outside forces’ threat to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and further bolstering its military muscle for self-defence,” according to report.
Wednesday’s launch was the North’s 11th weapons test so far this year and the first SLBM test since August 2016, when it test-fired a Pukguksong-1 ballistic missile off the east coast, which flew about 500 km. During the previous 10 rounds of tests, Pyongyang fired only short-range projectiles.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump played down the North’s weapons tests involving short-range projectiles, saying that Kim was not breaking an agreement that they agreed in their summit in June last year.
Along with its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), the North’s SLBM programme is considered one of the biggest threats to the US and its allies, as it could extend the range of the North’s nuclear missiles and such a missile is hard to detect in advance before it emerges from the water.
In the month of August, North Korea fired two projectiles presumed to be short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea.
North Korea witnessed its seventh round of such launches since July 25 when the North broke a 17-month hiatus and started firing missiles and projectiles to test new weapons and protest the South-US joint military exercise that it had long denounced as a rehearsal for invasion.
North Korea is under heavy US and UN sanctions over its weapons programmes and has criticised Washington’s position that sanctions against the isolated regime will not be lifted until the country gives up its nuclear weapons.
(With IANS inputs)