Voice of America
WASHINGTON—
U.S. experts warn that North Korea’s pursuit of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) could pose serious security threats to the United States and its allies despite speculation that Pyongyang’s latest attempt to launch such a missile might have failed.
In May, North Korea conducted its first SLBM test and it appeared to be a success. Late last month, the communist country conducted another SLBM test, prompting military officials in Washington and Seoul to wonder if they should reassess Pyongyang’s missile program.
Recently, 38 North, a North Korea monitoring website run by John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, released satellite imagery indicating Pyongyang appeared to be moving toward developing a submarine-launched ballistic missile.
What remains unclear is how close Pyongyang is to such a missile. Citing a government source, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported North Korea’s second SLBM test ended in failure, with no indication that the missile successfully ejected from the vessel and took off.
But some U.S. experts are not sure if the test was indeed a failure.
“The North’s experience with SLBMs, especially this failure, seems to be more typical of a program they are actually working through, testing flaws in the missiles,” said Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, a global policy think tank.
“What we don’t know is what the nature of the failure was or how serious,” added Bennett.
Bennett called for efforts to deter such tests, saying “there is a high probability that North Korea will eventually have SLBM capability…”
