North Korea successfully tested a “new type” of submarine-launched ballistic missile, state media reported early Wednesday.

The device had “lots of advanced control guidance technologies,” the official Korean Central News Agency said, adding the missile was fired from the same vessel that the North used in its first submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test five years ago.

Diplomats said the UN Security Council will hold an emergency closed-door meeting on North Korea, after a request by the UK and US, diplomatic sources told AFP.

Pictures in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed the black and white missile emerging from calm waters trailing a column of fire and smoke, and a surfacing submarine.

A proven submarine-based missile capability would take the North’s arsenal to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and a second-strike capability in the event of an attack on its military bases, AFP reported.

But the use of the same “8.24 Yongung” submarine as it tested five years indicates that it may only have made limited progress in its launch capabilities, according to AFP.

Earlier on Tuesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff that North Korea conducted a short-range ballistic missile test. Seoul’s Yonhap news agency quoted South Korean analysts as saying that the missile was a submarine-launched weapon.

Source: Agencies