North Korea announced on Friday that it had built a “tactical nuclear attack submarine” as part of its efforts to boost its naval strength, state news agency KCNA reported.
The new submarine was unveiled Wednesday at a ceremony presided over by North Korean leader Kim-Jong Un, who said the craft is part of the Navy’s “progress in nuclear weaponry in the future,” according to KCNA.
Called “Hero Kim Kun Ok”
Footage released by state media shows Kim-Jong Un, dressed in a light suit and matching hat, addressing white-uniformed sailors beside the submarine, whose bow is decorated with the North American flag. Korean.
The launch of submarine number 841, named Hero Kim Kun Ok, marks “a new chapter in strengthening the DPRK’s naval forces”, according to the state agency, which refers to the abbreviation of the official name of the North Korea.
North Korea announced on Friday that it had built a “tactical nuclear attack submarine” as part of its efforts to boost its naval strength, state news agency KCNA reported.
© / AFP
The North Korean leader declared that the submarine “will accomplish its combat mission” and will be “one of the main submarine offensive assets of the national naval forces”, according to the same source. North Korea will transform its existing submarines into nuclear-armed combat vessels, he said.
A strategic and tactical plan
During the ceremony with confetti and balloons, the North Korean number one spoke of the “strategic and tactical plan aimed at continually strengthening the modernity of the submarine and surface forces and the progression of the nuclear armament of the Navy in the future,” according to KCNA.
Surrounded by soldiers in immaculate uniforms sporting a profusion of medals, Kim-Jong un is hilarious, wearing the kepi visibly borrowed from a Navy officer squatting in front of him, applauding the launch of the new submarine, according to a photo from KCNA.
He inspected the submarine as it prepared to conduct a test trip on Thursday. “Arming the Navy with nuclear weapons becomes an urgent task,” he said, according to KCNA.
64 to 86 submarines
The reclusive country has increased its weapons tests this year. In August, the country failed in its second attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit, which ended in failure. In response to these tests, Seoul and Washington have strengthened their defense cooperation, organizing joint military exercises.
According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a US-based think tank, North Korea has between 64 and 86 submarines, one of the largest submarine fleets in the world. However, experts doubt that they are all operational given the age of the ships, according to NTI.
In 2019, state media showed Kim-Jong un inspecting a submarine that had never been reported before. “This is the same submarine – although modified in depth -“, estimated Joseph Dempsey, researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, on X. “Although North Korea has added a compartment to missiles and outwardly imitated more contemporary design features… (the submarine) at its core is an obsolete diesel-electric powered Romeo class, originally designed in the 1950s,” he said. .
“It will present fundamental limitations and vulnerabilities”
Ankit Panda, a US-based analyst, added that the new submarine’s capabilities “will not be revolutionary, but will increase the complexity of the nuclear threat posed by North Korea.”
South Korea condemned the submarine launch. Kim In-ae, deputy spokesperson for South Korea’s unification ministry, said Pyongyang was “wasting its meager resources on futile weapons development while neglecting the hardships of its people.”
“Pyongyang must understand that its weapons programs and threats only endanger its security in the face of the overwhelming response from the strengthened joint posture of South Korea, the United States and Japan,” he said. he adds.