N Korea building new submarine: US think tank
 

SEOUL: Recent satellite imagery suggests **rth Korea may be building a new, larger submarine for ballistic missiles, a US think tank has said, as the isolated state pushes its nuclear ******* programme.

The news comes after the **rth in August test-fired a submarine-launched missile (SLBM) 500 kilometres towards Japan, which leader Kim Jong-Un said put the US mainland and the Pacific within striking range.

“Commercial satellite imagery strongly suggests that a naval construction programme is underway at **rth Korea’s Sinpo South Shipyard, possibly to build a new submarine,” the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said on its closely-watched website, 38 **rth.

“If this activity is indeed to build a new submarine, it would appear to be larger than **rth Korea’s GORAE-class experimental ballistic missile submarine, which has a beam of approximately 7 meters.”

Analysts say that while Pyongyang has made faster progress in its SLBM system than originally expected, it is still years away from deployment.

A proven SLBM system would take **rth Korea’s nuclear strike threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and a “second-strike” capability in the event of an attack on its military bases.

South Korea’s military authorities believe Pyongyang is eyeing a submarine capable of carrying multiple SLBMs, to replace an existing experimental submarine used for the August test, according to Seoul’s Yonhap news agency.

**rth Korea is barred under UN resolutions from any use of ballistic missile tech**logy, but this year alone it has test-fired more than 20 missiles and carried out two nuclear tests.

Its fifth and most powerful nuclear test on September 9, when Pyongyang detonated what it said was a miniaturised atomic bomb, provoked worldwide condemnation and prompted the UN Security Council to begin work on a new sanctions resolution.

Also this month, the **rth claimed to have successfully ground tested a new, high-powered rocket engine, a move Seoul said was designed to showcase its progress towards being able to target the US east coast.

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