North Korea says it successfully test—fired Submarine launched ballistic missile

North Korea says it successfully test-fired a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from the sea off its east coast.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “sent warm congratulations” to the defence scientists who conducted the test, state news agency KCNA said, indicating he did not attend the launch as he has at previous tests of new weapons systems.

“The new-type ballistic missile was fired in vertical mode” in the waters off Wonsan Bay on Wednesday, the state news agency reported.

“The successful new-type SLBM test-firing comes to be of great significance as it ushered in a new phase in containing the outside forces’ threat to the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and further bolstering its military muscle for self-defence”.

The test “had no adverse impact on the security of neighbouring countries,” it added, but Japan said the missile had landed inside its exclusive economic zone, but there were no immediate reports of damage to shipping or aircraft.

South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said the missile travelled about 450km (280 miles) in an easterly direction at a maximum altitude of 910km.

A State Department spokeswoman called on Pyongyang to “refrain from provocations” and to remain committed to the nuclear negotiations.

South Korea expressed strong concern and the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, condemned the launch, saying it was a violation of UN security council resolutions.

North Korea rejects those resolutions that ban Pyongyang from using ballistic missile technology, saying they are an infringement of its right to self-defence.

The launch was the ninth since Donald Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, met at the heavily guarded demilitarised zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas in June, and came soon after Pyongyang announced it would hold working-level talks with the US on Saturday – a development that could potentially break months of stalemate over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.

Talks aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes have been stalled since the second summit between Trump and Kim in Vietnam in February ended without a deal.