North Korea launches missile from submarine, Seoul says

North Korea appears to have launched a ballistic missile from a submarine Saturday evening, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said.

The missile was fired from a submarine off North Korea’s east coast, in the Sea of Japan, about 6:30 p.m. local time, the joint chiefs said. But they did not say whether the launch was a success, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

North Korea said last May that it had successfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile from under the sea, with the state news agency reporting that Kim Jong Un had ordered the test of the “world-level strategic weapon” and was present when it “soared into the sky from underwater.”

North Korea also released photos of the event, including one that showed Kim on a boat holding binoculars as the rocket blasted out of the sea. But missile experts later said that the launch was faked and the pictures had been doctored.

As Kim’s regime prepares for a much-hyped communist party congress early next month, analysts have been expecting North Korea to stage more provocations to give Kim more to crow about. A congress of the Workers’ Party has not been held since 1980, and 33-year-old Kim is expected to use the meeting to bolster his legitimacy as the third-generation leader of North Korea.

Tensions have run high since Kim ordered a nuclear test in January, swiftly followed by a long-range rocket launch that scientists say appeared to be part of an inter-continental ballistic missile program.

South Korean military officials warned earlier Saturday that North Korea could be preparing to carry out a fifth nuclear test. They had seen vehicles and people moving at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the northeast of the country.