North Korea has verified it test-fired a new submarine-launched ballistic bullet (SLBM), a day after South Korea reported the launch of what it said appeared to be an SLBM from North Korea’s east seacoast.
State media said on Wednesday a “ new type” of SLBM had been launched and released a series of prints.
The device had “ lots of advanced control guidance technologies”, North Korea’s state news agency Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, adding that it was fired from the same vessel that the North used in its first SLBM test five times agone.
The report didn’t mention leader Kim Jong Un, suggesting he didn’t watch the test.
The launch, near the megacity of Sinpo, where Pyongyang has a major dockyard structure submarines, is the fifth since September and the first test of an SLBM since 2019. The North is banned from bullet tests under United Nations warrants.
The UN Security Council will hold an exigency closed-door meeting on North Korea for Wednesday, at the request of the United States and the United Kingdom.
Pyongyang has been gradationally perfecting its military magazine since addresses on denuclearisation broke down in 2019 following the collapse of the Hanoi peak between Kim and also US chairman Donald Trump.
Kim has indicated the US and South Korea of maintaining a “ hostile policy” towards the North, averring that his country’s service development is pivotal for “tone-defense”.
The White House reviewed North Korean policy after Joe Biden took office in January and has been prompting Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table – crucial envoys from the US and South Korea met in Washington DC this week as the test was detected and Sung Kim, Biden’s special envoy on North Korea, is due to travel to Seoul to bandy the possibility of reviving tactfulness with Pyongyang.
On Tuesday, the US again stressed it remained open to political engagement with Pyongyang, but prompted North Korea to refrain from further “ provocations”.
Robert Kelly, professor of political wisdom at Pusan National University in South Korea, told Al Jazeera the tests were presumably a sign that the North was looking for further from the US.
“ Perhaps it went to their head a little that Donald Trump tête-à-tête met the North Korean leader three times and now North Korea feels they ’re entitled to some presidential attention and that Joe Biden himself should be ever involved,” he said. “ This is one of the reasons why US chairpersons hadn’t met the North Koreans before, but I suppose this is what the North Koreans want. They want further than envoys, registers, and prophets.”
Harder to track
The prints of the test published by KCNA appeared to show a bullet that was thinner and lower than former SLBM designs, with judges assuming it could be a preliminarily unseen model that was first showcased at a defense exhibition in Pyongyang last week.
A lower SLBM could allow further dumdums – albeit at a shorter range – to be stored on a single submarine, potentially moving the North closer to contending a functional ballistic bullet submarine (SSB).
But judges said the development was likely to have only a limited effect until the country made further progress on a larger submarine that has been seen under construction.
“ It just means they ’re trying to diversify their submarine launch options,” said Dave Schmerler, an elderly exploration associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California.
“ It’s an intriguing development but with only one submarine in the water that can launch notionally one or two of these it doesn’t change important.”
KCNA said the new bullet featured advanced control guidance technologies including “ hand mobility and gliding skip mobility,” KCNA said.
“ (The SLBM) will greatly contribute to putting the defense technology of the country in a high position and to enhancing the aquatic functional capability of our cortege,” it added.
Schmerler said it was unclear exactly what KCNA meant by “ hand mobility”, but “ glide skip” was a way to change a bullet’s line to make it harder to track and block.
The North last tested an SLBM in October 2019.
In a report this month on the country’s service capabilities, the US government’s Defense Intelligence Agency said the North’s pursuit of submarine-launched ballistic bullet capabilities along with its steady development of land-grounded mobile long-range munitions stressed Pyongyang’s intention to “ make a survivable, dependable nuclear delivery capability.”
