April 24, 2016•Update: April 28, 2016
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
North Korea insisted Sunday that it had successfully tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), hours after South Korean military officials claimed the North had failed with an attempted SLBM launch in waters east of the peninsula.
The North’s pursuit of SLBM technology has raised equal measures of skepticism and alarm since the country hailed its first launch of a ballistic missile from a submarine last May – outside experts view Pyongyang’s celebrations as premature but also a sign of things to come.
This time, according to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea’s SLBM managed to fly for around 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) on Saturday evening, well short of expectations for a successful test.
But Pyongyang’s state-run North Korean Central News Agency issued a counter-claim by announcing that leader Kim Jong-un had overseen a flawless launch incorporating solid fuel and other technological breakthroughs that the North claims threaten Seoul and Washington.
Kim encouraged ongoing efforts to allow North Korea to “mount nuclear attacks on the U.S. imperialists and the South Korean puppet group of traitors any time”.
The U.S. and South Korea fought on the same side during the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a ceasefire rather than a peace treaty.
SLBMs are particularly concerning because unlike the North’s land-based threat, they are more likely to go undetected until it is too late.
Seoul publicly condemned North Korea’s latest test Sunday, while calling for action by the United Nations Security Council.
"Regardless of whether the test was a success or not, it is a clear violation of UNSC resolutions," a foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters.
"The government has warned on various occasions that the North would face stronger and sterner responses from the international community in the event of an additional provocation."
In a separate briefing, a South Korean defense ministry spokesperson suggested that Pyongyang might be in a position to deploy SLBMs within three years.
North Korea has intensified its nuclear development this year and was hit with strengthened sanctions last month for its fourth ever nuclear test and subsequent rocket launch.
The South also revealed recently that the North had botched a medium-range ballistic missile test involving a relatively new weapon – raising concerns that perceived failures may further pressure the Kim Jong-un regime to conduct a fifth nuclear test before a much-anticipated political congress next month.
Meanwhile, South Korean military sources noted Sunday that North Korea has deployed along the border around 300 multiple launch rocket systems capable of simultaneously raining thousands of projectiles on Seoul.
Yonhap reported that the rockets have twice the range of those used in the fatal shelling of a South Korean border island in 2010.
