South Korea exposes North Korea's nuclear submarine

According to Sputnik, North Korea is building a new generation submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles. However, information revealed by South Korea shows a different truth.

Russian newspaper said that satellite images have revealed the North Korean Navy's program to build a new submarine that can be used to launch ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads.

Sputnik quoted a source from the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University as saying: "Satellite images show a naval construction program underway at North Korea's Sinpo shipyard, possibly aimed at developing new submarines."

According to this source, the new submarine North Korea is building is larger than Pyongyang's GORAE-class submarine, which is about 7 meters wide, the US-Korea Institute commented.

Although this source confirmed that North Korea is pursuing a new generation submarine construction program, the South Korean news agency Yonhap revealed completely different information.

Yonhap quoted government and military sources as saying that North Korea has just put into operation a converted Soviet-era submarine capable of launching ballistic missiles.

The source said that North Korea had purchased a Golf-class diesel submarine from the Soviet Union and refurbished it. The submarine was built in 1958 and decommissioned in 1990.

After being “resurrected” by North Korea, it became a new submarine with a length of 67 m, a width of 6.6 m, a submerged displacement of 3,000 tons and the ability to launch ballistic missiles from underwater. The Soviet Golf-class submarine carried a single-stage R-21 ballistic missile equipped with a 1,180 kg warhead with a maximum range of 1,420 km.

Image of mysterious North Korean submarine seen in 2014.

According to Yonhap, this North Korean submarine could be the strange submarine at the anchorage of the Sinpo South shipyard that the 38 North website, which specializes in monitoring the situation in North Korea, discovered last month based on satellite image data.

To be able to mount ballistic missile tubes on this submarine, North Korea has conducted a series of tests both on land and at sea. The website 38 North also discovered a ballistic missile test platform built right at the Sinpo South shipyard.

According to South Korean military experts, North Korea still does not have the technology to deploy ballistic missiles on submarines, and they will have to research and test for many more years to perfect this technology.

Mr. Joseph Bermudez, an international weapons expert, commented: "It will take North Korea 3 or 4 more years to complete vertical missile launch tests from under the sea."

Information about the Golf-class submarine appearing in the North Korean Navy has partly explained the mysterious submarine that has been reported by international media in recent days.

Yonhap news agency previously said: "A review of commercial satellite imagery... shows a new testing facility at North Korea's South Sinpo shipyard, possibly to study the ability to launch ballistic missiles from submarines or from ships capable of vertical launch."

According to baodatviet.vn