North Korea released further details of its alleged May submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in its most recent issue of the monthly Pictorial Korea magazine, declaring all aspects of the text to have been successful.
A short paragraph in an article entitled “Full Display of Self-reliant National Defence Industry” describes some of the test’s purposes.
“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 reads.
The article goes onto say the supposed ballistic missile-armed submarine is a gift to the Workers Party of Korea (WPK) to celebrate 70th anniversary of its founding, and equates the development with the DPRK’s satellite launch in 2012.
North Korea watchers and missile experts have speculated the test was not carried out from a submarine, but a nearby submerged barge.
DPRK media has also released two different sets of video footage of the missile, one of which appears to feature footage from a U.S. Trident missile launch.
Despite the unclear nature of the exact details of the test, some elements of it were apparently successful.
“We can confirm that just the launch of the missile 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,” Kim Min Seok, spokesperson for the South Korean Ministry of National Defense, told NK News.
Despite the launch, many analysts in the U.S. and South Korea said the DPRK’s SLBM program was still in the early stages of development.
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