North Korea on Wednesday unveiled video footage that includes the scene of what it claimed to be a successful test-firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile.
North Korea's propaganda website Uriminzokkiri made public the two minutes of footage where a projectile that appears to be a ballistic missile was launched from a black submerged vessel. The object flies into the sky with a loud blast after being ejected from underwater in what looks like a test-firing of a ballistic missile.
The footage contains a caption that states North Korea's successful launch of an SLBM will nullify the Seoul-Washington alliance and the U.S. nuclear umbrella. The North also claimed that Seoul will be engulfed with chaos with just one or two SLBMs.
It is not confirmed whether the North's footage is authentic or not.
The first 10 seconds of the clip appears to be an edited version of a YouTube video that features the launch of a U.S.
ballistic missile, the Trident I.
The transition into the latter half, which shows the airborne missile, also appears abrupt, suggesting the second half may have been taken from a different video.
The news came as North Korea said last week that it has already made nuclear warheads small enough to fit on missiles.
Experts have raised concerns over Pyongyang's move, since it is seen as part of efforts to equip its missiles with miniaturized nuclear bombs.
South Korea has said the North's test-firing was more of a test for an ejection rather than a firing, since the missile is assumed to have only made it about 100 meters after coming out of the water.
But some analysts said if the North's claim is confirmed, the move will add a fresh threat to security on the Korean Peninsula as it is hard to detect where the SLBMs will be launched. (Yonhap)
