North Korea's Kim inspects new submarine

[soryang]

North Korea's Kim inspects new submarine, signals possible ballistic missile development
Joyce Lee, Josh Smith Reuters July 22

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a large newly built submarine, state news agency KCNA reported on Tuesday, potentially signaling continued development of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) program.

Kim inspected the operational and tactical data and combat weapon systems of the new submarine which was built under “his special attention” and will be operational in the waters off the east coast, KCNA said.

KCNA said the submarine’s operational deployment was near.

...

“We can clearly see that it is a massive submarine - much larger than the existing one that’s been well known since 2014,” said Ankit Panda, senior fellow at the U.S.-based Federation of American Scientists.

“What I find significant about the political messaging here is that this is the first time since a February 2018 military parade that he has inspected a military system clearly designed to carry and deliver nuclear weapons.”

More:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-submarine/north-koreas-kim-jong-un-inspects-new-submarine-points-out-weapons-systems-kcna-idUSKCN1UH2LK

Ankit Panda says in a separate tweet that the sub is very much not ready for sea:

Finally: Kim Jong Un has *not made any commitment not to test SLBMs*. They wouldn’t start off testing from this sub, which is very much not ready for sea. Likely, we’d see an underwater pontoon ejection/partial flight/full flight test series.

Link to tweet

Obviously a poor move for the communist regime to promote this project publicly when the sub is not ready and the missile is not ready either. The testing of the missile would be very provocative. Somewhere in the twitter thread the notion of bureaucratic pressure to move the project is raised which may provide some explanation.