North Korea has confirmed it test-fired a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), a day after South Korea reported the launch of what it said appeared to be an SLBM from North Korea’s east coast, Al Jazeera reports.
State media said on Wednesday a “new type” of SLBM had been launched, and released a series of photos.
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 years ago.
The report did not mention leader Kim Jong Un, suggesting he did not watch the test.
The launch, near the city of Sinpo, where Pyongyang has a major shipyard building submarines, is the fifth since September, the eighth this year, and the first test of an SLBM since 2019. The North is banned from missile tests under United Nations sanctions.
The UN Security Council will hold an emergency closed-door meeting on North Korea on Wednesday at the request of the United States and the United Kingdom.
Pyongyang has been gradually improving its military arsenal since talks on denuclearization broke down in 2019 following the collapse of the Hanoi summit between Kim and then US President Donald Trump.
Kim has accused the US and South Korea of maintaining a “hostile policy” towards the North, insisting that his country’s military development is crucial for “self-defense”.
