Free Republic

North Korea has lost contact with one of its submarines, U.S. officials tell CNN. The submarine, apparently on some sort of exercise earlier this week, was being tracked by the U.S. military when it suddenly stopped. The fate of the sub is unknown, but U.S. forces have observed North Korea's attempts to find the missing craft. U.S. officials believe the submarine experienced some sort of failure, and the U.S. military has been monitoring the subsequent search and rescue mission via spy satellites, aircraft, and ships. The incident is taking place at a time of particular high tension in the area,...

N. Korea launches ballistic missile submarine: gov't sources 2014/11/02 08:00 SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has launched a new submarine capable of firing ballistic missiles, military and government sources in Seoul said Sunday, raising further concerns over the North's evolving missile and nuclear threats. The communist country "imported a Soviet-era Golf-class diesel submarine and modified it," a government source said on condition of anonymity. The Soviet vessel was built in 1958 and decommissioned in 1990. "The new submarine is 67 meters long with a beam of 6.6 meters, and has a dived displacement in the 3,000-ton range," the...