For the first time, North Korea displayed a nuclear-powered submarine that is currently being built; this weaponry could be a serious security risk to both the US and South Korea.
In its coverage of leader Kim Jong Un’s travels to significant shipyards where warships are constructed, the state media agency on Saturday published images of what it described as “a nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine.”
Kim was informed on the submarine’s construction, according to the Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, but no further information was provided.
According to Moon Keun-sik, a South Korean submarine expert who teaches at Hanyang University in Seoul, the navy vessel looks to be a 6,000- or 7,000-ton class that can carry roughly ten missiles. According to him, the phrase “the strategic guided missiles” implied that it would be equipped with nuclear-capable weaponry.
According to Moon, “it would be absolutely threatening to us and the U.S.”
“We are aware of these reports and do not have any information to give at this time,” stated Brian Hughes, spokesman for the US National Security Council.
Hughes declared, “The U.S. is dedicated to the complete denuclearization of North Korea.”
During a significant political gathering in 2021, Kim pledged to implement a long list of advanced weapons, including a nuclear-powered submarine, to address what he described as growing military threats from the United States. Other weapons included multi-warhead missiles, surveillance satellites, hypersonic weaponry, and solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles. Since then, North Korea has conducted a series of tests in an attempt to obtain them.
It is concerning that North Korea has improved its underwater missile firing capabilities since it makes it harder for its adversaries to anticipate such launches.
There have been concerns raised about how North Korea, a poor and heavily sanctioned nation, might obtain the resources and technology necessary to construct nuclear-powered submarines.
According to Moon, the specialist on submarines, Russia may have given North Korea technical support to construct a nuclear reactor for the submarine in exchange for providing conventional weaponry and personnel to aid Russia in its fight against Ukraine.
In addition, he stated that North Korea may test the submarine’s capabilities before deploying it in a year or two.
North Korea possesses one of the largest fleets of diesel-powered submarines in the world, with an estimated 70 to 90 of them. But they are generally old ones that can only launch mines and torpedoes, not missiles.
North Korea claimed to have launched its first “tactical nuclear attack submarine” in 2023, but international analysts questioned the North’s claim and conjectured that it was probably a diesel-powered submarine that had been leaked in 2019. According to Moon, there is no proof that it has been used.
The same 2,000-ton-class submarine with a single launch tube has been used for all of North Korea’s underwater-launched ballistic missile tests since 2016. Rather of being an operational submarine in active service, many experts refer to it as a test platform.
Before their annual military exercises begin on Monday, North Korea has been intensifying its venomous rhetoric against the United States and South Korea in recent days.
Kim stated during his tours of the shipyards that North Korea wants to update its subsurface and water-surface vessels at the same time. According to KCNA on Saturday, he emphasized the necessity of forcing “the incomparably overwhelming warships complete their duties” in order to stop “the hostile forces’ habitual gunboat diplomacy.”
Leaders News Blog 