North Korean Submarine Goes Missing
KABUL: (MEP) A North Korean submarine is missing on Saturday as the regime lost contact with it, U.S. officials familiar with the latest information told CNN.
The vessel, of an unknown class, was last seen operating off the North Korean coast earlier this week.
The report occurs amid ongoing military exercises by South Korea and the United States in the region.
The U.S. is unsure if the missing vessel is adrift under the sea or whether it has sunk, the officials said, but believes it suffered some type of failure during an exercise.
A South Korean defense ministry told AFP Seoul was investigating the reports. Pentagon officials declined to comment on the matter.
American spy satellites, aircraft and ships have been watching as the North Korean navy searched for the missing sub, the report added.
The US Naval Institute (USNI) News, meanwhile, has said the vessel was presumed sunk.
North Korea has not confirmed the incident, and has made no comment on the report.
The report of the submarine going missing came as Pyongyang issued a new warning against South Korea and the US over their joint ongoing drills.
The official KCNA 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 added it planned to respond to the drills with an “operation to liberate the whole of South Korea including Seoul” with an “ultra-precision blitzkrieg”.
Responding to the statement, South Korea’s defense ministry urged Pyongyang to stop making threats or further provocations, according to Yonhap news agency.
