North Korean Submarine Missing Off Eastern Coast

Local Editor

North Korea lost contact with one of its submarines off the country's eastern coast, CNN reported citing US officials, at a time the country issued a fresh threat of retaliation against US and South Korean forces involved in joint military drills.

Officials reported on Friday that the US spy satellites, aircraft and ships observed as the North Korean navy searched for the missing submarine for several days. However, the United States claimed it is unaware of the submarine's current whereabouts.

Earlier on Thursday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the North had fired two short-range missiles. The missiles hit waters northeast of the port city of Wonsan, according to the South Korean military.

On March 3, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported, citing South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun, that several short-range missiles were fired from the North Korean Wonsan naval base. All of them reportedly fell into the sea.

Meanwhile, the reported launches came in the wake of new sanctions introduced against North Korea by the UN Security Council earlier this month.

The sanctions came in response to Pyongyang's January hydrogen bomb test, as well as the launch, a month later, of a long-range rocket to allegedly place a satellite into orbit, in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team