North Korea's SLBM threat is real, says U.S. Pacific Fleet commander

SEOUL, July 20 (UPI) -- North Korea's claims that it has test-launched ballistic missiles from a submarine must be taken seriously, Adm. Scott Swift said in Seoul on Monday.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet commander made the statement the same day he held meetings with Chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff Choi Yoon-hee and Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Jung Ho-sup, Yonhap reported.

"We need to approach it as if it is real," Swift told South Korea press. "Even if it was a photo shoot, there was a desire to pursue that capability, and that is very destabilizing."

In May, a U.S. Navy official had said video footage of North Korea's underwater tests had been manipulated, attributing the images to Pyongyang's "clever video editors and spin-meisters."

"They are years away from developing this capability," Adm. James Winnefeld had said earlier this year.

Seoul also said the footage more closely resembled a missile ejection, rather than a firing – the weapon only reached 100 meters after coming out of the water.

But Swift said South Korea and the United States must be prepared because North Korea's "lack of transparency" is destabilizing for the northeast Asia region – and leading to a buildup of U.S. armed forces, Voice of America reported.

The Pacific Fleet commander also said North Korea should follow Iran's example of denuclearization, a deal that was reached with the United States, as well as Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

In the meantime, Swift said he is "very confident that despite the uncertainty on the peninsula...we are fully prepared to support [commander of U.S. Forces Korea] Gen. Scaparrotti and Chairman [of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff] Choi [Yoon-hee] and do what may be necessary as of the present and future."

Swift had participated in a seven-hour surveillance mission in the South China Sea on Saturday.