South Korea said the submarines, comprising about 70 per cent of a North Korean submarine fleet, had left their home ports and were nowhere to be found.
Military are increasing their surveillance capability to track them. Military sources said, “This is 10 times more than their normal deployment level. Dozens of them left their bases at both coasts, and we are unable to track them.”
Yonhap news agency, citing military officials, said the submarine deployment was the largest since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
They suspect that the unusually high level of N. Korea’s submarine movements may be for further military provocation, and raised their level of alert. North Korea has also doubled its artillery strength near the border since Friday, a ministry spokesman said.
US and South Korean reconnaissance planes and naval vessels searched yesterday off the east and west coasts of the Korean peninsula for the submarines.
Force levels are high in South Korea, too, as Seoul and Washington stage their annual summer military drills with around 80,000 troops. On Saturday, South Korea and the U.S. flew fighter jets close to the border in a simulated bombing run.
The question is whether the 50 submarines, 1,400-ton Romeo-class and 1,000-ton Whiskey-class vessels, have orders to target commercial or naval vessels – or are just putting on a show of force. “No one knows,” said a military spokesman. “We are mobilising all our surveillance resources.”