North Korea reveals nuclear submarine progress as Kim Jong Un slams South Korea
Photos show largely completed hull of new submarine
North Korea on Thursday showed apparent progress in the construction of a nuclear submarine, with state media pictures showing a largely completed hull, as leader Kim Jong Un condemned rival South Korea’s push to acquire the technology.
Mr Kim visited a shipyard to inspect the construction of what the North has described as an 8,700-tonnne nuclear-propelled submarine and which the leader has previously called a crucial step in the modernisation and nuclear armament of the navy, the state news agency KCNA said.
The North has indicated it plans to arm the submarine with nuclear weapons, calling it a “strategic guided missile submarine” or a “strategic nuclear attack submarine”.
During the visit, Mr Kim described South Korea’s effort to obtain a nuclear-powered submarine, backed by US president Donald Trump, as an “offensive act” that severely violates the North’s security and maritime sovereignty.
He said the South Korean plan further underscored the need to modernise and nuclear-arm the North Korean navy, and claimed that the completion of his new submarine would be an “epoch-making” change in strengthening the nuclear war deterrent against what he called enemy threats.
The news agency did not specify when Mr Kim visited the shipyard, but released photos showing him inspecting a huge, burgundy-coloured vessel, coated with what appeared to be anti-corrosion paint, under construction inside an assembly hall with senior officials and his daughter. It was the first time North Korean state media had released images of the submarine since March, when they mostly showed the lower sections of the vessel.
It was not immediately clear how close North Korea was to completing the vessel. But because submarines are typically built from the inside out, the release of what appears to be a largely completed hull suggests many core components, including the engine and possibly the reactor, are already in place, Moon Keun Sik, a submarine expert at Seoul’s Hanyang University, said.
“Showing the entire vessel now seems to indicate that most of the equipment has already been installed and it is just about ready to be launched into the water,” Mr Moon, a former submarine officer in the South Korean navy, added. He was of the view that the North Korean submarine could possibly be tested at sea within months.
A nuclear-powered submarine was one item on a wishlist of sophisticated weaponry Mr Kim announced during a major political conference in 2021 to cope with what he called growing 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 the weapons systems.
It’s a worrying development for its rivals if North Korea obtains a greater ability to fire missiles from underwater because it is difficult to detect such launches in advance. But there are questions about whether the North, a heavily sanctioned country, can obtain resources and technology to build nuclear-powered submarines.
Some experts say the North’s alignment with Russia, including sending troops and military equipment to support the Ukraine war in Ukraine, could have helped it get technological assistance in return.
While some analysts suspected the North sought a nuclear reactor from Russia, possibly from a retired Russian submarine, Mr Moon said it was more likely that Pyongyang designed its own reactor, while possibly getting technological assistance from Russia.
During a summit with Mr Trump in November, South Korean president Lee Jae Myung called for US support for his country’s efforts to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, while reaffirming a commitment to increase defence spending to ease the burden on Washington.
Mr Trump later said that the US was open to sharing closely held technology to allow South Korea to build a nuclear-powered submarine but it was not immediately clear where and when the vessel would be built and how Seoul would get the nuclear fuel and reactor technology required.
In a separate report, KCNA said Mr Kim on Wednesday supervised a test of a new, long-range anti-air missile that was fired towards the eastern sea. The South didn’t immediately comment on the launch.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have deepened in recent years as Mr Kim has accelerated his military nuclear programme and deepened ties with Moscow. His government has dismissed calls by Washington and Seoul to revive negotiations aimed at winding down his nuclear and missile programmes, which derailed in 2019 following a collapsed summit with Mr Trump during the American president’s first term.
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