North Korea tests new nuclear underwater drone

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "personally guided" a test of a simulated underwater nuclear strategic weapon

North Korea on Friday, tested a new nuclear-capable underwater attack drone, in a stern warning to South Korea and the United States.

Kim Jong Un, the leader of the isolated country, has repeatedly warned that their joint military exercises be suspended.

According to the North Korean state news agency (KCNA), the new drone cruised underwater for over 59 hours at a depth of 80 to 150 metres (260-500 feet) and detonated a non-nuclear payload off its east coast.

Analysts believe North Korea is demonstrating to Washington and Seoul its increasingly diverse nuclear threats, though they are sceptical about whether the underwater vehicle is ready for deployment.

Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said North Korea intends to signal “to the United States and South Korea that in a war, the potential vectors of nuclear weapons delivery that the allies would have to worry about and target would be vast”.

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“There would be silos, railcars, submarines and road-mobile missile launchers. And now they’re adding this underwater torpedo to the mix,” he said.

Dubbed “Haeil”, or tsunami, the new drone system is intended to make sneak attacks in enemy waters and destroy naval strike groups and major operational ports by creating a large radioactive wave through an underwater explosion, the KCNA said.

“This nuclear underwater attack drone can be deployed at any coast and port or towed by a surface ship for operation,” the news agency said, adding that Kim oversaw the test.

-Reuters

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