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| North Korea's first SLBM test |
SEOUL, South Korea — Recent satellite images suggest North Korea has completed the external renovation of a shipyard dedicated to building and launching a new class of ballistic missile submarines, a US think tank said Wednesday.
While it is unlikely that any such vessel would become operational before 2020, the North's efforts to develop a working submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) is clearly "making progress," according to the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
A credible SLBM capability would take North Korea's nuclear strike threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and the potential to retaliate in the event of a nuclear attack.
Last month, one of the North's experimental GORAE-class submarines carried out an SLBM test in the East Sea (Sea of Japan), launching a missile that traveled around 19 miles.
South Korea deemed the test a failure as the missile appeared to have exploded, but analysts at the US Korea Institute said it was a success.
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