North Korea Unveils Nuclear Missile Submarine for First Time

North Korea has produced a nuclear-powered submarine that may be able to carry up to 10 missiles, according to reports.

On Saturday, state media in the secretive country released images of leader Kim Jong Un next to a vessel it said could carry strategic guided missiles.

Newsweek has contacted the Pentagon for comment.

Why It Matters

Yonhap, a South Korean news agency, said this was the first time Pyongyang had publicly disclosed the construction of such a vessel. In 2021, Kim pledged to introduce a nuclear-power submarine in response to what he called escalating military threats from the U.S., and Washington will no doubt be concerned about the development.

What To Know

The North Korean leader has inspected a project to build a nuclear-powered submarine, warning that Pyongyang’s maritime defense capability will be “fully displayed in any necessary waters without limitation,” according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), which did not disclose the date or location of Kim’s visit.

The outlet said he reviewed “a nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine” under construction, and it published images of the leader and his officials next to it.

Yonhap reported that the term likely referred to a nuclear-powered submarine capable of launching ballistic missiles, commonly known as a ballistic missile submarine.

Moon Keun-sik, a South Korean submarine expert at Seoul’s Hanyang University, told the Associated Press that the vessel appeared to be a 6,000-ton-class or 7,000-ton-class submarine and that it could carry about 10 nuclear-capable missiles.

Given the heavy sanctions North Korea faces, the vessel may have been built with the assistance of Russia in exchange for supplying weapons and troops to support Russia’s war effort against Ukraine, Moon added.

KCNA gave no details about the vessel while describing how Kim “acquainted himself with the ongoing work for attaining the goal of building warships.”

North Korea has an estimated fleet of up to 90 diesel-powered submarines, although most of them are aging and can launch only torpedoes and mines, not missiles.

Pyongyang said in 2023 that it had launched its first “tactical nuclear attack submarine,” but foreign experts doubted the announcement and speculated that it was likely a diesel-powered submarine disclosed in 2019.

Since 2016, North Korea has conducted underwater-launched ballistic missile tests from the same 2,000-ton-class submarine, which has a single launch tube. Experts have described the vessel as a test platform rather than an operational submarine.

What People Are Saying

North Korean state news agency KCNA reported: “Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, visited major shipyards to give field guidance to warship building.”

What Happens Next

Moon said North Korea could launch the submarine within two years to test its capability before its deployment, posing a possible a security risk to the U.S.

The release of images of Kim next to the vessel coincide with Pyongyang’s fiery rhetoric against the U.S. and South Korea, which are holding annual military drills set to begin on Monday.