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USA Today reports that under the watchful eyes of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, North Korea says it has conducted an underwater test-firing of a submarine ballistic missile. Kim called the missile a "world-level strategic weapon" and an "eye-opening success." Although American officials had suspected North Korea was developing such a missile system, the country had not previously claimed to have conducted a test launching. The test, if confirmed, would pose a new challenge to the United States and its regional allies, South Korea and Japan, which have been trying to build missile defense capabilities to guard against potential North Korean missile attacks.
The news of a successful test-fire was most likely a surprise to South Korean military officials, who have privately told reporters that they believed it would take years for the North to develop such a submarine-launched ballistic missile. "North Korea's development of a submarine-launched missile capability would eventually expand Pyongyang's threat to South Korea, Japan and U.S. bases in East Asia" says Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. "Submarines carrying land-attack missiles would be challenging to locate and track, would be mobile assets able to attack from any direction, and could operate at significant distances from the Korean peninsula."
See also: BBC, Reuters, The Guardian, Washington Post.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday May 10 2015, @08:51PM
Nice dream, but it won't happen that way. By the time the old guard dies off Un will have grown comfortable with his total power. He put his own uncle to death for pete sake. He isn't playing some waiting game.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2015, @09:43PM
You are probably right about getting comfortable if being raised the way he was has not warped him to begin with.
But you can draw precisely zero conclusions from the killing of his uncle.
We have absolutely no idea what was going on behind the scenes. For all we know Dear Uncle was in the process of staging a coup. The guy might not even be dead. Remember the ex-girlfriend who was executed nominally for making porn? Turns out she is not dead after all. [telegraph.co.uk]