North Korea unveils nuclear-powered submarine for the first time
[March 08, 2025]
By HYUNG-JIN KIM
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea 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 U.S.
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 U.S.,” 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 U.S.-led military
threats. Other weapons were solid-fueled 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.
Questions about how North Korea, a heavily sanctioned and impoverished
country, could get resources and technology to build nuclear-powered
submarines have surfaced.
Moon, the submarine expert, 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.
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In this undated photo provided on March 8, 2025, by the North Korean
government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, bottom right, visits a
shipyard to construct warships at an undisclosed place in North
Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the
event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean
government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be
independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News
Service via AP)
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 ones
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. 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-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 dialing up its fiery rhetoric
against the U.S. and South Korea ahead of their upcoming annual
military drills set to start Monday.
During his visits to the shipyards, Kim said North Korea aims to
modernize water-surface and underwater warships simultaneously. He
stressed the need to make “the incomparably overwhelming warships
fulfill their mission” to contain "the inveterate gunboat diplomacy
of the hostile forces,” KCNA reported Saturday.
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