North Korea may have fired missile from submarine

[soryang]

3. Missile launches in context

We also had Moon Jae In's speech yesterday for Military Day extolling South Korean military strength, accompanied by flights of its newly acquired F-35s. Japan took the opportunity to formally complain and reassert its bogus territorial claim to Dokto which was overflown by one of the South Korean F-35s covered live on South Korean television.

Another observer pointed out that the Russians test launched an ICBM on Sep. 30. Yesterday, China demonstrated it's new ICBMs at a military parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of the PRC.

The new US defense secretary has been promoting the deployment of US IRBMs in the far east now that the US is no longer constrained by the treaty with Russia on that category of weapons.

So the test launch of a SLBM today near Wonsan North Korea takes place in this international context as well as the context of UN sanctions and US-DPRK negotiations.