North Korea announced Friday that it had conducted a new test of a “unmanned” nuclear submarine, in the latest response to the US-South Korean maneuvers.
“The DPRK’s National Defense Science Research Institute conducted a test of a strategic underwater weapon system between April 4 and 7,” the official North Korean news agency KCNA reported.
It added that the Hale-2 nuclear-powered submarine conducted an underwater simulation, during which it covered a distance of 1,000 km.
Malicious electronic activities
The United States, South Korea and Japan expressed deep concern regarding North Korea’s “malign” cyber activities to support its weapons programmes, in comments released in a joint statement on Friday.
Officials and experts in the United States and its allies say digital currencies stolen by hackers from North Korea have been a major source of funding for the sanctioned country’s weapons programs.
“We stress with concern that DPRK IT personnel abroad continue to use false identities and nationalities” to evade UN sanctions and collect funds for missile programmes, the statement said.
“We are also deeply concerned regarding how the DPRK supports these programs through theft and money laundering as well as information gathering through malicious cyber activities,” the statement added.
South Korea’s envoy to the North Korean nuclear talks held talks with his US and Japanese counterparts in Seoul this week and denounced Pyongyang’s weapons tests.
