North Korea revealed for the first time a nuclear-powered submarine under construction, a weapons system that could pose a significant security threat to South Korea and the United States.
On Saturday, state media released photos of what it called “a nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine,” as part of a report on leader Kim Jong Un’s visits to major shipyards that build warships.
The Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, did not provide specifics about the submarine, but did say Kim was briefed on its construction.
According to Moon Keun-sik, a South Korean submarine expert who teaches at Seoul’s Hanyang University, the naval vessel appears to be of the 6,000- or 7,000-ton class, capable of carrying approximately 10 missiles. He claimed that the term “strategic guided missiles” implied that they would be capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
“It would be absolutely threatening to us and the U.S.,” Moon informed the audience.
A nuclear-powered submarine was among a long list of sophisticated weapons that Kim promised to introduce at a major political conference in 2021 to combat what he described as escalating US-led military threats.
Other weapons included solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, spy satellites, and multiwarhead missiles. North Korea has since carried out a series of testing activities to acquire them.
North Korea’s increased ability to fire missiles from underwater is a concerning development because it is difficult for its adversaries to detect such launches in advance.
Questions have been raised about how North Korea, which is heavily sanctioned and impoverished, could obtain the resources and technology required to build nuclear-powered submarines.
According to Moon, a submarine expert, Russia may have provided North Korea with nuclear reactor technology in exchange for conventional weapons and troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine.
He also stated that North Korea could launch the submarine in one or two years to test its capabilities before deployment.
North Korea’s fleet of approximately 70-90 diesel-powered submarines is one of the world’s largest. However, they are mostly old and only capable of launching torpedoes and mines, not missiles.
North Korea announced in 2023 that it had launched its first “tactical nuclear attack submarine,” but foreign experts questioned the announcement, speculating that it was most likely a diesel-powered submarine revealed in 2019. Moon stated that there has been no confirmation of its deployment.
Since 2016, North Korea has conducted a slew of underwater-launched ballistic missile tests, but all of them have been launched from the same 2,000-ton-class submarine with a single launch tube. Many experts regard it as a test platform rather than an operational submarine in active service.
North Korea has recently increased its fiery rhetoric against the United States and South Korea ahead of their upcoming annual military drills, which begin Monday.
During his visits to the shipyards, Kim stated that North Korea intends to modernise both water-surface and underwater warships simultaneously.
He emphasised the importance of making “the incomparably overwhelming warships fulfil their mission” to contain “the inveterate gunboat diplomacy of the hostile forces,” according to KCNA on Saturday.
