North Korea claims it test-fired ballistic missile from submarine

A South Korean watches a TV news program Saturday that shows a North Korean ballistic missile that is believed to have been launched from a submarine. (Ahn Young-Oon/The Associated Press)

PYONGYANG, North Korea – North Korea said Saturday that it successfully test-fired a newly developed ballistic missile from a submarine in the latest display of the country’s advancing military capabilities.

Hours after the announcement, South Korean officials said the North fired three anti-ship cruise missiles into the sea off its east coast.

Experts in Seoul say the North’s military demonstrations and hostile rhetoric are attempts to wrest concessions from the United States and South Korea, whose officials have recently talked about the possibility of holding preliminary talks with the North to test its commitment to denuclearization.

For the second straight day, North Korea said it would fire without warning at South Korean naval vessels that it claims have been violating its territorial waters off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea’s presidential Blue House held an emergency national security council meeting to review the threat and discuss possible countermeasures.

“By raising tensions, North Korea is trying to ensure that it will be able to drive whatever future talks with the U.S. and South Korea,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor from the Seoul-based University of North Korean Studies.

South Korean officials had previously said that North Korea was developing technologies for launching ballistic missiles from underwater, although past tests were believed to have been conducted on platforms built on land or at sea and not from submarines.

Security experts say that North Korea’s acquiring the ability to launch missiles from submarines would be an alarming development because missiles fired from submerged vessels are harder to detect before launch than land-based ones.

North Korea already has a considerable arsenal of land-based ballistic missiles and is believed to be advancing in efforts to miniaturize nuclear warheads to mount on such missiles, according to South Korean officials.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un directed the submarine test launching and called the missile a “world-level strategic weapon” and an “eye-opening success,” said the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. The report did not reveal the timing or location of the launch.