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WASHINGTON: Satellite images of a North Korean shipyard on Friday (September 4) show activity that suggests preparations for a test of a submarine-launched medium-range ballistic missile, a US think tank reported Friday.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies said images it posted on its website of North Korea’s Sinpo shipyard showed several vessels within a secure dock, one of which resembled vessels previously used to tow a test submersible barge. at sea.
He said the activity was “suggestive, but not conclusive, of preparations for an upcoming test of a ballistic missile launched from the Pukguksong-3 submarine from the submersible test bed barge.”
North Korea said last October that it had successfully tested a Pukguksong-3, a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), from the sea as part of efforts to contain external threats and bolster self-defense.
Analysts called that launch the most provocative by North Korea since it began a dialogue with the United States about its nuclear weapons and missile programs in 2018.
North Korea has suspended long-range missile and nuclear tests since 2017, but efforts led by US President Donald Trump to persuade it to abandon its nuclear and missile programs have achieved little.
Trump is seeking re-election in November and a North Korean missile test earlier that would highlight a lack of progress despite Trump’s unprecedented meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
There were no immediate comments from the State Department or the Pentagon on the CSIS report.
At Friday’s press conference, Trump praised his relationship with North Korea, saying that when he was elected, people had predicted that he would be at war with the country in a week.
“Meanwhile, we have gotten along well with them. We did not go to war,” he said.
Trump has viewed North Korea’s absence of nuclear and ICBM tests since 2017 as a success of his diplomacy and has tried to downplay numerous short-range tests in the period.
“North Korea already tested an SLBM PKS-3 last October. And it didn’t cross Trump’s red line at the time, and it’s unlikely it will this time. Trump won’t mind,” said Vipin Narang, an expert on non-proliferation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he wrote on Twitter.
The South Korean military said the Pukguksong-3 tested last year flew 450 km and reached an altitude of 910 km and would have had a range of about 1,300 km on a standard trajectory.
News of the activity at Sinpo comes amid signs that North Korea may be gearing up for a major military parade in October, which some analysts believe could be used to showcase new missiles as the country has done at events this year. kind in the past.
