The director of the U.S. Center for Non-Proliferation said that South Korea succeeded in launching an SLBM from the naval submarine Dosan Anchang on the 1st, just before the 9/9 anniversary of North Korea's founding day, through an undisclosed underwater launch test.
Jeffrey Lewis, director of the Center for East Asian Non-Proliferation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said on the 8th, “I consider South Korea’s SLBM development to be part of the intensifying arms race between the two Koreas. I've seen things that I felt didn't exist," he told Voice of America (VOA).
"South Korean submarines are more impressive than North Koreans, and South Korea's military technology is far superior," Lewis said.
The North Korean Central News Agency reported that the Workers and Peasant Red Guard and Social Security Forces held a military parade at midnight on the 9th to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the anniversary of the establishment of the regime ('September 9'), centering on conventional weapons.
In a speech by the Workers' Party of Korea, Ri Il-hwan, secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, said in a speech, "All the people have held a gun in one hand and a hammer, sickle, and brush in the other, and have shown heroism in defending the country and building socialism. We will overcome the current difficulties and open a new ups and downs in socialist construction," he said.
At the parade, the Social Security Forces and the Labor Red Guard mechanized columns such as motorcycles and tractors performed with conventional weapons such as 122mm multiple rockets and firebird anti-tank missiles, and the latest strategic weapons of the regular army did not appear.
According to the Dong-A Ilbo on the 6th, according to a defense industry official, the Defense Science Research Institute (ADD) recently succeeded in two closed-door tests of launching an SLBM from the Dosan Anchangho, the first 3,000-ton submarine. In particular, it is reported that 'cold launch', a core SLBM technology that ignites the missile engine after pushing the missile out of the water with air pressure from the launch tube, has been successfully operated. After the launch, mass production and deployment will begin,” he said on the 7th.
Dong-a continued, "South Korea has become the world's 8th SLBM holder in a situation where North Korea has unveiled new SLBMs last year and this year, spurring the development of asymmetric strategic weapons that threaten South Korea and the United States."
South Korean media, including Newsis, reported on the 1st that, "On the 1st, an undisclosed underwater injection test of a SLBM was conducted from the Dosan Anchangho, the first ship of the Jangbogo (KSS)-III (Dosan Anchangho-class) deployment-I led by the Defense Science Research Institute (ADD)." .
On the 13th of last month, the Navy held a delivery, takeover and commissioning ceremony for the Dosan Anchang ship at the Okpo Shipyard and unveiled the submarine.
Following the test-fires of the Pukguksong-1 in 2015, the Pukguksong-2 in 2017, and the Pukguksong-3 in 2019, North Korea unveiled the Pukguksong-4 at the parade ceremony for the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party in October last year, and in January this year, the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea. At the military parade, the Pukguksong-5 missile was unveiled.
South Korea diverted the performance improvement depot maintenance cost (317.7 billion won), which was previously electric power operation cost (labor cost and transportation cost), into defense capability improvement cost by increasing the defense capability improvement cost from the 77 trillion won deficit in government bonds with a budget of 604.4 trillion won next year.