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| A Sang-O class submarine captured by South Korea on display at Tongil (Unification) Park near Gangneung in 2012. (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Franz-Stefan Gady
About 70 percent of Pyongyang’s submarines have left their homeports and are nowhere to be found.
Over 50 North Korean submarines have left their homeports, according to a local media report. “Seventy percent of North Korea’s submarines left their bases, and their locations are not confirmed,” a South Korean military official told Yonhap News.
According to South Korean military officials, this constitutes the largest deployment of North Korean submarines since the end of the Korean War. U.S. and South Korean aircraft as well as naval vessels have so far unsuccessfully tried to locate the subs, making it difficult to ascertain whether their deployment is just a show of force, or whether they have received specific instructions to target South Korean shipping in the event of an escalation. “No one knows. We are mobilizing all our surveillance resources,” said a South Korean military spokesperson.
“This is a typical North Korean tactic of talking on one hand and brandishing military power on the other to try to force their way,” he added. After an escalation of tensions last week (See: “North Korea is Mobilizing For War”), Seoul and Pyongyang are currently engaged in their first high-level talks since February 2014 (See: “Amid ‘Quasi State of War,’ North, South Korea Hold First High-Level Talks in a Year”) with little progress so far.
Read the full story at The Diplomat