North Korea carried out an underwater test-fire of a submarine ballistic missile, watched by its leader Kim Jong-un, the state media said Saturday, in an apparent move to boost its underwater missile capabilities that could pose a fresh threat in the region. 

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the mouthpiece of the communist state, reported that Kim issued an order for the test-fire and watched the ballistic missile from the submarine

 "soar into the sky from underwater."

The article did not specify the exact date and location of the test-fire, and only mentioned that the site was remote from land.

But it is assumed to have taken place on Friday near Sinpo South Shipyard on the east coast, as the media said in a separate report that Kim paid a visit there on the same day to instruct a

 fishery complex.

Intelligence sources from Seoul and Washington have claimed the North has been developing a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), warning that it can be a fresh menace to the security of the Korean Peninsula.

They believe the North has succeeded in installing the missile launcher onto the submarine, predicted to weigh about 2,500 tons, after conducting a series of experiments on shore as well as underwater.

In February, North Korea said it had carried out a test of a missile ejection launcher from the seashore in Sinpo a month prior.

Early this year, U.S.-based website 38 North, said the North appears to have been developing a submarine capable of firing missiles, based on satellite imagery taken of the Sinpo shipyard in December.

It showed a roughly 2.25 meter-wide rectangular opening on top of the conning tower of a submarine that is believed to be designed to house missile launch tubes.

North Korean watchers have raised concerns over Pyongyang's move, since it is seen as part of efforts to equip its missiles with miniaturized nuclear bombs.

They said if what North says is true, it would mean the communist regime has reached a point where its naval strike capability is at least a decade ahead of the South.

The South Korean navy has just come up with a plan to build six 3,000-ton submarines equipped with vertical missile launchers between 2027 and 2030.

North Korea's move is believed to be aimed at making its submarine-launched missiles eventually capable of a long-range firing, experts said, which could set off the South to modify its tactics against the bellicose state.

The KCNA said the latest test-fire "proved and confirmed that the ballistic missile fire from the submarine fully met the requirements of the latest military science and technology."

Kim "highly praised" the officials and experts who led the project for "having successfully perfected the technology," the state media added.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)