Seoul - North Korea said Saturday it had successfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) -- a technology that could eventually offer the nuclear-armed state a survivable second-strike capability.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who personally oversaw the test, hailed the newly developed missile as a "world-level strategic weapon", according to a report by the official KCNA news agency.
There was no immediate independent confirmation of the test, which would violate UN sanctions banning Pyongyang from using ballistic missile technology.
A fully-developed SLBM capability would take the North Korean nuclear threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and the potential to retaliate in the event of a nuclear attack.
Satellite images earlier this year had shown the conning tower of a new North Korean submarine, which US analysts said appeared to house one or two vertical launch tubes for either ballistic or cruise missiles.
The same analysts from the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said at the time that developing an operational SLBM capability would be extremely costly and likely take North Korea "years" to achieve
AFP
