A North Korean submarine is missing, reports said yesterday, as the reclusive state issued a fresh threat of retaliation against US and South Korean forces involved in joint military drills.
The unknown class of vessel had reportedly been operating off the North Korean coast earlier in the week when it disappeared.
The South Korean Ministry of Defense said Seoul was investigating the reports. Pentagon officials declined to comment on the matter.
Photo: EPA
The US military had been observing the submarine off North Korea’s eastern coast, CNN said, citing three US officials familiar with the incident.
US spy satellites, aircraft and ships have been watching as the North Korean navy searched for the missing submarine, the report said.
The US is unsure if the missing vessel is adrift or whether it has sunk, but officials believe it suffered a failure during an exercise, CNN reported.
US Naval Institute (USNI) News said the submarine was presumed sunk.
“The speculation is that it sank,” an unidentified US official was quoted as telling USNI News. “The North Koreans have not made an attempt to indicate there is something wrong, or that they require help or some type of assistance.”
The incident comes as tensions were further heightened on the Korean Peninsula by a fresh threat from Pyongyang.
The Korean Central News Agency, citing a statement from military chiefs, warned of a “pre-emptive retaliatory strike at the enemy groups” involved in the joint US-South Korean drill.
Pyongyang said it planned to respond to the drills with an “operation to liberate the whole of South Korea, including Seoul” with an “ultra-precision blitzkrieg.”
The South Korean Ministry of Defense urged Pyongyang to stop making threats or further provocations, according to Yonhap news agency.
North Korea’s navy operates a fleet of about 70 submarines, most of them being rusting diesel submarines that are capable of little more than coastal defense and limited offensive capabilities.
However, the old, low-tech submarines still pose substantial threats to South Korean vessels.
In 2010, a South Korean corvette was reportedly torpedoed by a North Korean submarine near their sea border.
In August last year, Seoul said said 70 percent of North Korea’s total submarine fleet — or about 50 vessels — had left their bases and disappeared from South’s military radar, sparking alarm.
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