North Korea To Test Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles?

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Fears are growing about North Korean nuclear tests after satellite images allegedly showing a newly imported barge were released.

Pictures show a barge in the western coast Nampo Naval shipyard and suggest that North Korea could be about to test its submarine-launched ballistic missiles, according to analysis website 38North.

The barge is believed to have been imported, with no evidence of it being constructed in the region.

It comes after a warning that North Korea's nuclear weapons development may be designed to take over South Korea, and persuade the US to abandon them as an ally, by a senior White House official.

Questioning the North's stated purpose of warding off a US invasion, Matt Pottinger, the Asia director on President Donald Trump's National Security Council, said there may be some truth to claims that the North wants a nuclear deterrent to protect its communist dictatorship.

But he said the country's robust conventional military has worked as a deterrent for decades.

Mr Pottinger suggested other "disturbing" explanations for the North's development of "an arsenal of the worst weapons in the world".

He said:

"They have made no secret... that they want to use these weapons as an instrument of blackmail to achieve other goals, even including perhaps coercive reunification of the Korean Peninsula one day."

The North, he added, also wants to coerce the United States "to leave the peninsula and abandon our alliances".

His comments came a day after Mr Trump opened the door to a future meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, offering praise for the leader at a time of surging nuclear tensions.

The US has sent warships to the region to deter North Korea from conducting another nuclear test to advance its weapons programmes.

The North's nuclear and ballistic missile development already threatens South Korea and Japan, and within years could put the US mainland within striking range.

The North also has a formidable array of conventional artillery and rockets trained on the heavily-populated South Korean capital.

Echoing other Trump administration officials, Mr Pottinger said the US is not seeking regime change in North Korea, but wants an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

He said:

"We really have no choice but to increase pressure on North Korea to diplomatically isolate them, to bring a greater economic pain to bear until they are willing to make concrete steps to start reducing that threat."