The North Korean regime lost
contact with one of its submarines earlier this week, three U.S. officials
familiar with the latest information told CNN.
The U.S. military had been
observing the submarine operate off North Korea's east coast when the vessel
stopped, and U.S. spy satellites, aircraft and ships have been secretly
watching for days as the North Korean navy searched for the missing sub.
The U.S. is unsure if the
missing vessel is adrift under the sea or whether it has sunk, the officials
said, but believes it suffered some type of failure during an exercise.
Tensions have heightened on the
Korean peninsula following a fourth North Korean nuclear test and joint
U.S.-South Korean military drills.
On Thursday, the South Korean
military said North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles. They were
fired from North Hwanghae province, south of Pyongyang, toward the sea east of
the Korean Peninsula, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The South
tracked the projectiles and is monitoring the situation, it said.
Also Thursday, the agency
published a statement that "all agreements on economic cooperation and
business exchanges adopted by North and South are invalid."
This comes after Seoul last
month ordered the closure of the Kaesong industrial complex, a rare symbol of
cooperation between the two Koreas.
Describing the shuttering of
Kaesong as a "unilateral" move, KCNA said Pyongyang "will
completely liquidate all South Korean companies and relevant assets"
within its borders.
Seoul condemned the suspension
of economic ties Thursday, with the Unification Ministry saying in a statement
it would "never accept" the move, which it described as a
"provocative action."
The statement added it would
hold Pyongyang responsible for any damage to South Korean assets north of the
border.