Images recommend North Korea could be preparing launch of submarine missile: Think-tank
05 September, 2020
Satellite imagery of a North Korean shipyard on Friday (Sep 4) shows activity suggestive of preparations for a test of a medium-range submarine-launched ballistic missile, a US think-tank reported on Friday.
THE GUTS for Strategic and International Studies said the images it published on its website of North Korea's Sinpo shipyard showed several vessels within a secure boat basin, among which resembled vessels used to tow a submersible test stand barge out to sea.
It said the experience was "suggestive, however, not conclusive, of preparations for an upcoming test of a Pukguksong-3 submarine launched ballistic missile from the submersible test stand barge".
North Korea said last October it had successfully test-fired a Pukguksong-3, a fresh submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), from the sea within efforts to contain external threats and bolster self-defense.
That launch was seen by analysts as the most provocative by North Korea because it entered dialogue with the United States over its nuclear weapons and missile programs in 2018.
North Korea has suspended long-range missile and nuclear tests since 2017, but efforts led by US President Donald Trump to persuade it to stop its nuclear and missile programs have achieved little.
Trump is seeking reelection in November and a North Korean missile test before that could highlight having less progress despite Trump's unprecedented meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
There was no immediate comment from the State Department or the Pentagon on the CSIS report.
At news conference earlier on Friday, Trump hailed his relationship with North Korea, saying that when he was elected persons had predicted he would be at war with the united states within a week.
"For the time being, we've gotten along with them. We didn't get to war," he said.
Trump has organized the absence of intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear studies by North Korea since 2017 as successful from his diplomacy and has sought to play down numerous shorter-range tests in the time.
"North Korea already tested a PKS-3 SLBM last October. And it didn’t cross Trump’s redline then, and is unlikely to the time. Trump won't care," Vipin Narang, a non-proliferation expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote on Twitter.
South Korea's military said the Pukguksong-3 tested this past year flew 450km and reached an altitude of 910km and would have had a range around 1,300km on a typical trajectory.
News of the activity at Sinpo comes amid signs that North Korea may be preparing for a major military parade in October, which some analysts believe could possibly be used to show off new missiles as the country did at such events previously.
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