Satellite imagery from North Korea's Sinpo shipyard has revealed signs of activity related to an unknown shipbuilding project.
Though analysts have feared that Pyongyang plans to fire a missile from a submarine, the images suggest this is not imminent. Analyst Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. reviewed images dated September 21, showing continued movement of components in the parts yard that suggests an unidentified vessel is under construction.
"While the Sinpo South Shipyard has historically been involved in the construction or repair of submarines, infiltration mother ships, small combatants and hovercraft, it is not apparent what type of shipbuilding program is being pursued," Bermudez Jr. wrote in his report for 38 North, a U.S.-based North Korea monitoring group.
The researcher has been monitoring the shipyard for months and had observed levels of activity in August that U.S. officials described as "highly unusual and unprecedented."
Compared to a few months ago, a netting suspended over the SINPO-class submarine (SSBA) is no longer visible in the new images, suggesting that whatever work was taking place on the vessel is now over.
The submarine and the submersible missile test stand barge have however not moved from their position and there are no further indications of an imminent submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM).
More construction work is instead taking place on an unidentified submerged object located just off the main construction hall's launching ramp, as two heavy-lift barge cranes indicate. According to the analyst, the object could be a sunk mother ship or small submarine.
North Korea is in possession of 72 submarines, according to a report by the Institute for International Studies, most of these considered to be old and unable to fire a missile.
Even so, Pyongyang successfully tested its first SLBM in August 2016, which flew about 310 miles towards Japan. It has also recently conducted ejection tests, as a U.S. defense official told CNN in August.
To launch a missile from a submarine, high pressure steam is used to propel the rocket out of the launch canister into the air before the engines ignite. This is done to avoid damaging the vessels, a procedure known as a "cold-launch system".
The development of SLBMs is one of the traditional components of the so-called "Strategic Triad", a nuclear deterrence strategy involving land, air and sea-based attack capabilities, which experts believe remain one of the least developed parts of North Korea's rapidly advancing nuclear program.
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