SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile Saturday, Seoul said, its second missile launch in three days, after the United States warned Pyongyang could be preparing for a nuclear test.
Pyongyang has dramatically ramped up its sanctions-busting missile launches this year, conducting 15 weapons tests since January including firing an intercontinental ballistic missile at full range for the first time since 2017.
The latest launch comes just days before South Korea swears in a new, hawkish President Yoon Suk-yeol.
Satellite imagery indicates North Korea may also be preparing to resume nuclear testing, with the U.S. State Department on Friday warning a test could come “as early as this month”.
“Our military detected around 14:07 (0507 GMT) a short-range ballistic missile presumed to be an SLBM fired from waters off Sinpo, South Hamgyong,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.
Sinpo is a major naval shipyard in North Korea and satellite photos have in the past shown submarines at the facility.
The missile flew 600 kilometers (372 miles) at a maximum altitude of 60 kilometers, the JCS added, a distance that indicates it was a short-range ballistic missile.
It landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, Tokyo’s Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi said.
Last month, while overseeing a huge military parade, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to develop his nuclear forces “at the fastest possible speed” and warned of possible “pre-emptive” strikes.
Pyongyang test-fired what Seoul and Tokyo described on Wednesday as a ballistic missile, with North Korea’s state media -- which typically report on weapons tests – totally ignoring the reported claims.
This is while South Korea tested its own SLBM last year, placing it among a small group of nations that have such technology. Seoul also unveiled a supersonic cruise missile, in what was widely viewed as something of an arms race on the peninsula.