North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Orders New Submarine with Multiple SLBM Launchers
On Friday, August 26, Tokyo Shimbun, a Japanese media, reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered a new submarine that is capable of launching multiple ballistic missiles to be finished by 2018, which is also the 70th anniversary of the founding of the nation.
The young ruler ordered the ruling North Korean Workers' Party to build a submarine which can fire two to three submarine-launched ballistic missiles or SLBMs, to be completed by September 9, 2018.
In a report, the Korea JoongAng Daily said mentioned that the North's present 2,000-ton Sinpo-class submarine can only fire one SLBM from about 10 meters under water and must return to a base to load another missile.
After Pyongyang's launch of two Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missiles, Kim purportedly ordered the construction of the submarine at a dinner attended by scientists and prominent figures on June 22. North Korea is anticipated to use the technology it acquired from studying a Soviet-era Golf-class submarine that the country acquired from Russia in 1993.
Also, according to a report from the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Pyongyang is bent on creating a 3,000-ton w
A South Korean military official said, "Kim Jong Un has the tendency to visit the testing site of new weaponry. After he visits a site, at the related unit, complete national support is provided."
Some analysts pointed out that it is likely that North Korea is determined to do anything in order to create and develop SLBMs as its new main asymmetrical military power.
Kim Keun Sik, a Kyungnam University political science professor said, "Nuclear or missile weapons have been developed since [North Korean founder] Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il. SLBMs can become Kim Jong Un's trademark."
On Thursday, 38 North, a website run by the United States-Korea Institute at John Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies that monitors Pyongyang, said that North Korea upgraded security at its Sohae Satellite Launching Station.
The upgrades to security, which can be seen through satellite imagery, could signify that the facility could be home to North Korean scientists, engineers, technicians, and support personnel.
