Sean Gallagher
July 3, 2015
North Korea brags some more about submarine-launched ballistic missile
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s government has released a bit more information about what North Korean media has claimed was the successful test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile in May. NKNews.org reports that a description of the test was published in the monthly magazine Pictorial Korea, explaining its purpose and results.
“The test-firing proved that the noise level inside the submarine, recoil, missile’s speed at the surface of waters, flying angle and all the other elements of launch fully satisfied the requirements of the latest military science and technology,” the article reported. However, it’s still not clear that the missile was actually launched from a submarine, as some evidence points to it being launched from a submerged test barge.
A South Korean Ministry of Defense spokesperson, Kim Min Seok, told NK News that South Korean intelligence had confirmed that the launching of the missile itself was successful “as there were videos that showed that the launch really did take place. This missile was a reconfigured version of the Russian R-20 missile from the 1960s for submarines that DPRK originally altered to launch on land.” Whether the missile was launched from a barge or an actual submarine isn’t clear.
But despite North Korean media reports, the missile did not travel very far after launch. Footage of the missile flying off into the sky released by North Korea has been confirmed to actually be footage of a US Navy Trident missile test launch.
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