[Yonhap News Photo]
North Korea has completed the external construction of an assembly hall that would probably help the nuclear-armed country build a new class of strategic submarines, according to the website of a US research institute.
For months, North Korea has been working on the construction of new facilities for submarines capable of launching submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) at its Shinpo shipyard.
"Work on the launching way and construction hall ... is now externally complete," 38 North said after analyzing satellite imagery taken after North Korea's SLBM test on July 9.
The status of work inside the hall remains unclear, but when finished, North Korea will be able to build new submarines much larger than its existing Gorae-class, including a new class of ballistic missile submarines, the website said.
Last December, Pyongyang said it has successfully conducted an SLBM "ejection" test, but US and South Korea experts said it was a failed test. In April this year, Pyongyang claimed to have conducted a successful SLBM test from a strategic submarine, but military officials in Seoul said the test probably had failed.
38 North has said that the North's SLBM program represents "an emerging rather than a current threat", although deployment of such operational systems is an expensive, time-consuming endeavor and there is no guarantee of success.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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