North Korea Readies Capability to Launch Missiles From Submarines, New Threat Posed to U.S. West Coast

New satellite images reveal North Korea may be close to testing a deadly new submarine arsenal that ultimately could deliver nuclear missiles to the U.S. West Coast.

The images show a new barge situated in the Nampo Naval shipyard in the western part of North Korea that’s similar to a barge in the Sinpo South shipyard already used for missile tests in eastern North Korea. Observers fear the new barge could be in place to test submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM).

Website 38North, which monitors military activity in the communist country, claims the newly-installed barge could be an indication that North Korea is planning to ‘accelerate its SLBM test program.’ “

Long-range ballistic missiles (ISBMs), and their submarine-housed counterparts (SLBMs), are rockets which can carry nuclear bombs and would be capable of striking the west coast of the US including cities such as Los Angeles and Seattle.”

38North believes the 68-foot barge at Nampo was likely not built in North Korea, but bought from abroad. The barge at Sinpo South has been used in six missile test launches since 2014.

Last week, to celebrate the 85^th anniversary of the creation of the North Korean military, the biggest military drill in the country’s history featured a massive display from its arsenal of heavy artillery, which could wreak havoc on its southern neighbor, South Korea.

At the same time, South Korea activated the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system provided by the United States. It’s situated on a golf course in the southern country of Seongju.

Kim seems particularly upset the United States has moved a U.S. Navy carrier strike group, led by the USS Carl Vinson, into the Sea of Japan off the east coast of the Korean peninsula.

A spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry said Pyongyang was ‘fully ready to respond to any option taken by the US’.  The regime will continue bolstering its ‘pre-emptive nuclear attack’ capabilities unless Washington scrapped its hostile policies, he said in a statement carried by the state-run KCNA news agency.”

More ominously, Kim has vowed that North Korea is prepared to carry out a new test of its nuclear bomb capability “at any time and at any location,” despite pressure from both the U.S. and China to hold off on any further provocation.

Source: The Sun