DPRK unveils newest submarine
Print Edition
Democratic People鈥檚 Republic of Korea leader Kim Jong Un has inspected a newly built submarine and ordered officials to further bolster the country鈥檚 military capabilities, state media reported yesterday, as the DPRK increases pressure on the United States ahead of the possible resumption of nuclear diplomacy.
Last week, the DPRK said it may lift its 20-month suspension of nuclear and missile tests to protest expected military drills between the US and South Korea that Pyongyang says are an invasion rehearsal.
The submarine report comes as the US and DPRK work to resume talks after a meeting late last month on the Korean border between Kim and US President Donald Trump.
Diplomacy has been stalled since the second Kim-Trump summit in Vietnam in February fell apart due to differences over US-led sanctions.
The DPRK鈥檚 official Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday that Kim expressed 鈥済reat satisfaction鈥 with the submarine after learning about its operational and tactical data and weapon systems.
Kim 鈥渟tressed 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 submarine,鈥 according to KCNA.
KCNA said the submarine鈥檚 operational deployment 鈥渋s near at hand.鈥 But it didn鈥檛 say exactly when or where Kim鈥檚 inspection of the submarine occurred.
It wasn鈥檛 immediately known exactly what kind of a submarine the DPRK has built. According to a South Korean defense report in 2018, DPRK has 70 submarines and submersibles.
Before it entered talks with the US, the DPRK claimed to have successfully test-fired ballistic missiles from submarines.
There has been little public progress despite the most recent Trump-Kim meeting and the newly built submarine released could be a way to increase pressure on the US.
The DPRK wants relief from harsh US-led sanctions in return for giving up parts of its weapons program but the US is demanding greater steps toward disarmament before it agrees to relinquish its leverage.
The submarine鈥檚 disclosure came as US National Security Adviser John Bolton arrived in South Korea yesterday for talks on DPRK and other issues.
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