North Korea To Develop Missile Submarines In 2-3 Years

North Korea will develop fully operational ballistic submarine in about two to three years, a senior South Korean defense official said Monday.

The photos of a test of North Korea's submarine-launched ballistic missile appeared authentic, the official was quoted as saying by Reuters Today.

North Korea, already has UN sanctions for its missile and nuclear tests and also many believe that the nation is trying to develop a nuclear device small enough to be mounted on a ballistic missile.

Some of the North Korean submarines are technically capable enough to come within the range of the US mainland but they cannot necessarily carry a missile, although the North's missile-equipped submarines could reach Japanese waters.

"They need to build a new, bigger submarine," said Yang Uk a senior research fellow at the Korea Defence and Security Forum and a policy adviser to the South Korean navy.

Both the US and Japan reserve rights to conduct pre-emptive strikes on North Korean missile sites, if a nuclear attack is about to happen. Launching missiles from submarines could enable Pyongyang to hide them.

"While North Korea's submarines are not especially effective, the challenge of finding even a small number of specific submarines armed with missiles would be quite a challenge," said Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Monterey Institute of International Studies. Like much of North Korea's arsenal, its fleet of around 70 submarines is based mainly on ageing, Soviet-era technology.

Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Saturday reported that North Korea carried out an underwater test-fire of a submarine ballistic missile but the report did not mention the exact time and place of the test launch. It only had said that the site was “remote from land.”