North Korea unveils nuclear-powered submarine for the first time
Kim Jong Un reportedly visited major shipyards in the North in what experts have said marks a threat to the US.
North Korea has unveiled for the first time a nuclear-powered submarine under construction, a weapons system that can pose a major security threat to South Korea and the US.
On Saturday, state media released photos showing what it called “a nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine”, as it reported leader Kim Jong Un’s visits to major shipyards where warships are built.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) did not provide details on the submarine, but said Mr Kim was briefed on its construction.
Moon Keun-sik, a South Korean submarine expert who teaches at Seoul’s Hanyang University, said the naval vessel appears to be a 6,000-ton-class or 7,000-tonne-class one which can carry about 10 missiles.
He said the use of the term “the strategic guided missiles” meant it would carry nuclear-capable weapons.
“It would be absolutely threatening to us and the US,” Mr Moon said.
US National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said: “We’re aware of these claims and do not have additional information to provide at this time.
“The US is committed to the complete denuclearisation of North Korea.”
A nuclear-powered submarine was among a long wishlist of sophisticated weaponry that Mr Kim vowed to introduce during a major political conference in 2021 to cope with what he called escalating US-led military threats.
Other weapons were solid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, spy satellites and multi-warhead missiles.
North Korea has since performed a run of testing activities to acquire them.
The North obtaining a greater ability to fire missiles from underwater is a worrying development because it is difficult for its rivals to detect such launches in advance.
Questions about how North Korea, a heavily sanctioned and impoverished country, could get resources and technology to build nuclear-powered submarines have surfaced.
Mr Moon said North Korea may have received Russian technological assistance to build a nuclear reactor to be used in the submarine in return for supplying conventional weapons and troops to support Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine.
He also said North Korea could launch the submarine in one or two years to test its capability before its actual deployment.
North Korea has an estimated 70-90 diesel-powered submarines in one of the world’s largest fleets.
However, they are mostly aging vessels capable of launching only torpedoes and mines, not missiles.
In 2023, North Korea said it had launched what it called its first “tactical nuclear attack submarine”, but foreign experts doubted the North’s announcement and speculated it was likely a diesel-powered submarine disclosed in 2019.
Mr Moon said there has been no confirmation that it has been deployed.
North Korea has conducted a slew of underwater-launched ballistic missile tests since 2016, but all launches were made from the same 2,000-tonne-class submarine which has a single launch tube. Many experts call it a test platform, rather than an operational submarine in active service.
In recent days, North Korea has been dialling up its fiery rhetoric against the US and South Korea ahead of their upcoming annual military drills set to start Monday.
During his visits to the shipyards, Mr Kim said North Korea aims to modernise water-surface and underwater warships simultaneously.
He stressed the need to make “the incomparably overwhelming warships fulfil their mission” to contain “the inveterate gunboat diplomacy of the hostile forces”, KCNA reported on Saturday.
