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.
State media on Saturday 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, or KCNA, didn’t provide details on the submarine but said Kim was briefed on its construction.
The naval vessel appears to be a 6,000-ton-class or 7,000-ton-class one which can carry about 10 missiles, said Moon Keun-sik, a South Korean submarine expert who teaches at Seoul’s Hanyang University.
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,” Moon said.
A nuclear-powered submarine was among a long wishlist of sophisticated weaponry that Kim vowed to introduce during a major political conference in 2021 to cope with what he called escalating US-led military threats.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says arming navy with nuclear weapons is an urgent task and promises to transfer more underwater and surface vessels equipped with tactical nuclear weapons to naval forces.
A greater ability
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.
North Korea obtaining a greater ability to fire missiles from underwater is a worrying development because it’s difficult for its rivals to detect such launches in advance.
North Korea has an estimated 70 to 90 diesel-powered submarines in one of the world’s largest fleets. However, they are mostly ageing ones capable of launching only torpedoes and mines, not missiles.
North Korea has conducted a slew of underwater-launched ballistic missile tests since 2016, but all launches were made from the same 2,000-ton-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 on Monday.
During his visits to the shipyards, 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.
