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Kim Jong Un Inspects North Korean Submarine That May Be Deployed Soon

Kim Jong Un Inspects North Korean Submarine That May Be Deployed Soon

(Bloomberg) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a new submarine that would soon be deployed to waters between the peninsula and Japan, state media said, a move that comes as his regime tries to step up its ability to launch missiles from subs.

There was no indication in the Korean Central News Agency report Tuesday whether the submarine was capable of carrying ballistic missiles that could threaten nearby U.S. allies including South Korea and Japan. Kim has used the testing and deployments of weapons in recent months to remind the region of his military might, amid stop-and-go talks on ending his nuclear program.

Kim Jong Un Inspects North Korean Submarine That May Be Deployed Soon

Kim looked over a new submarine that will be deployed soon off the country’s east coast, KCNA said. He “stressed the need to steadily and reliably increase the national defense capability by directing big efforts to the development of the naval weapons and equipment such as submarines,” it said.

North Korea warned last week that upcoming U.S.-South Korea military drills could jeopardize planned nuclear talks, saying that President Donald Trump had pledged to suspend such exercises. News of the submarine was released as Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton -- a frequent target of Pyongyang’s criticism -- was visiting Japan and South Korea.

“Our military is closely monitoring the situation, although we apologize that we cannot confirm further details,” South Korean Defense Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said Tuesday.

Kim can be seen touring an indoor facility housing the submarine in photos released by North Korea’s official media. Weapons experts used the images to offer initial assessments of the vessel, saying it appears to be larger than a typical North Korean submarine. That potentially indicates that it could be missile-capable, but offers no proof.

“They don’t show us the portion where a missile tube or more might go,” said Melissa Hanham, an expert on weapons of mass destruction and director of the One Earth Future Foundation’s Datayo Project. “Until they show us the top part of the submarine, we won’t really get a chance to see how many metal tubes it could hold.”

A Substantial Fleet

Kim has refrained from testing ICBMs since 2017, underpinning his nuclear disarmament talks with Trump. After a February summit between the two broke down in Hanoi without a deal, Kim and Trump staged a historic June meeting on the border between the two Koreas, agreeing to restart working-level talks.

Kim Dong-yub, a North Korea expert on North Korea at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said the report’s timing might have been politically motivated. “It’s North Korea’s way of rather showing what it can do to ensure its people’s security over defense concerns, while remaining within the boundaries of it negatively impacting talks with the U.S,” he said.

North Korea has one of the world’s largest inventories of submarines, a fleet ranging from 64 to 68 vessels, according to a 2018 report from the Nuclear Threat Initiative. While almost all the vessels are smaller ships used for coastal patrols and espionage, the nation is believed to have at least one ballistic-missile submarine, the assessment said.

North Korea also appears to have started building a 3,000 ton-class submarine that could carry three or four ballistic missiles, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported in April, citing an unidentified South Korean military official. In 2016, it launched a ballistic missile from a submarine off its east coast that flew about 500 kilometers (300 miles), according to South Korea’s defense ministry.

--With assistance from Peter Pae.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jon Herskovitz in Tokyo at jherskovitz@bloomberg.net;Jihye Lee in Seoul at jlee2352@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh

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