S.Korea announces its first successful SLBM test

Sep 16 (NHK) - South Korea has announced its first successful test-firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile.

The presidential office and the Ministry of National Defense say the test-firing was conducted at a test center of the Agency for Defense Development on Wednesday, and President Moon Jae-in and Defense Minister Suh Wook attended the test-firing.

They say the missile, loaded on a 3,000-ton-class submarine, was fired from underwater, flew as planned and accurately hit the target.

The announcement said South Korea is the seventh country to succeed in test-firing an SLBM, following the United States, Russia, China and other countries. Officials say the missile is planned to be deployed to South Korea's military in the future.

Moon said the test had been planned in advance and was not in response to North Korea's provocations, referring to Wednesday's latest ballistic missile firings by North Korea.

Moon stressed that bolstering South Korea's missile capability can defer to North Korea's provocations and called on the military to do its best to boost defense capabilities to counter and overwhelm North Korea's military power.

North Korea also has an SLBM development program. It displayed what appeared to be a new type of SLBM during military parades in January and last October.

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