07:30 AM
North Korea launched two strategic cruise missiles from a submarine in a show of force ahead of joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States The North Korean state press reported on Monday.
A submarine fired weapons into the sea off the eastern North Korean coastal city of Sinpo on Sunday morning, according to the state-run KCNA news agency.
The South Korean army, quoted by the Yonhap agency, confirmed for its part that detected a missile launch, without giving further details, according to the Yonhap news agency.
KCNA noted that the launch was successful and that the missiles hit their targets designated near the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.
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Photos and videos released by the North Korean state press showed the submarine “8.24 Yongung” and a missile flying into the sky from the sea, followed by a trail of smoke and fire.
But analysts expressed doubts about the progress of North Korea’s submarine program.
Park Won-gon, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha University, said state media images suggest the missile it was fired from the surface of the water and not with the ship submerged.
“So there is no point in shooting from a submarine because there is no stealth,” Park told AFP.
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North Korea had warned that the military exercises in Washington and Seoul would be considered as a “declaration of war”.
The two allied countries began their biggest joint exercises in five years on Monday.
According to KCNA, the launch “shows the unwavering” determination of North Korea to face a situation in which forces “of US imperialism and its puppet South Korea show more and more clearly that they are maneuvers” against Pyongyang.
He added that the launch made it possible to “verify the current operational posture of the nuclear deterrence means in different spaces.”