The Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday claimed North Korea is developing a submarine capable of launching ballistic missiles.
"A missile launch tube on a North Korean submarine was observed recently by U.S. intelligence agencies and is raising new concerns about the missile and nuclear threat from the communist regime in Pyongyang," the Free Beacon claimed.
It said the North has secretly bought and modified old Soviet SS-N-6 SLB missiles to render them capable of being launched from submarines.
| I'll bet our guys can hear it coming a long, long ways away... |
If the alleged plan succeeds, the North could strike Anchorage in Alaska, and U.S. military bases on Okinawa, the Philippines, and Guam from waters near Sakhalin, Russia, the webzine speculated.
| If we did absolutely nothing to hinder them. Which, given our present administration, might be part of the plan... |
It cited speculation that the submarine would be either a modification of the Romeo-class diesel submarine that was made by Russia or China or a copy of the old Soviet Golf-class submarine that the North bought from Russia in the mid-1990s. |