[Yonhap News Photo]
In an apparent bid to accelerate its submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) program, North Korea is suspected of having imported a second submersible barge that could be used to conduct more underwater missile tests, according to 38 North, the website of a US research institute.
Satellite imagery from April 19 has identified a second submersible test stand barge for the SLBM program at a naval shipyard in Nampo west of Pyongyang, American analyst Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. said in an article published by 38 North.
The barge (9 m by 22.5 m) appears identical in size and layout to the first one seen in 2014 at a shipyard in the North's eastern port of Sinpo, the site for at least four, and maybe as many as six, SLBM test launches, he said, adding both are very similar to the old Russian PSD-4 barge.
"This could mean that North Korea is planning to accelerate its SLBM test program to include a west coast component or develop new SLBM designs, or that it may deploy a ballistic missile submarine with the West Sea Fleet. None of these possibilities are mutually exclusive," he said.
The discovery of a second missile test barge may have a number of implications for the future of Pyongyang's SLBM program that appears to be "an important priority" for leader Kim Jong-un, Bermudez said.
Pyongyang demonstrated the Pukguksong-1 (KN-11) SLBM in a military parade on April 15 to celebrate the birth anniversary of the North's late president Kim Il-Sung.
The North's SLBM program has been a prime security concern in Seoul and Washington, though US experts believe Pyongyang is still years away from the operational deployment of a submarine carrying ballistic missile for wartime missions.
Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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