Seoul, South Korea
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North Korea on Thursday released new images of what it claims is the country’s first nuclear-powered submarine. The submarine is comparable in size to some of the U.S. Navy’s attack submarines.
Photos released by state media show North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspecting a guided missile submarine at an indoor construction facility, indicating it has not yet been launched.
Building nuclear submarines has been a long-standing goal of Mr. Kim, first discussed at the ruling party’s convention in 2021, but the fact that rival South Korea was recently given the Trump administration’s blessing to move forward with building its own nuclear submarines appears to lend further urgency to Mr. Kim’s plans.
Such vessels have many advantages. If they can carry enough food for their crews, they can stay submerged for long periods of time, even years, but most conventionally powered submarines need to surface for air to run their diesel engines and charge their batteries for deep-sea travel.
They are also generally faster and often quieter than conventionally powered submarines. Currently, only the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, and India have this technology.
Images released Thursday show significant progress has been made on the submarine, whose existence was first announced in March.
State media said the ship had a displacement of 8,700 tons, equivalent to most of the Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines in the U.S. fleet.
Kim on Thursday reiterated the importance of ships in North Korea’s defense policy, saying the policy is “literally…based on the strongest offensive power,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
The Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim said, “In the development of the military, we believe that ultra-powerful attack capabilities are the best shield for national security.”
According to the report, Kim cited the US’ support and said South Korea’s nuclear submarine construction was an act that violated North Korea’s security and was a threat that needed to be countered.
But Leif Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said North Korea itself is to blame for escalating tensions on the peninsula.
“While Mr. Kim is probably right in thinking that increasing the number of nuclear submarines will increase instability around the Korean peninsula, Mr. Kim himself is responsible for the arms race,” Easley said.
“It is North Korea that denies diplomacy with South Korea, threatens neighboring countries with nuclear weapons, and deepens the suffering of its own people by devoting vast resources to military dictatorship rather than economic development,” he said.
Kim has overseen a major build-up of his country’s military as part of a five-year plan announced in 2021.
These include a range of missiles, including ballistic missiles that could reach the U.S. mainland, hypersonic glide vehicles that could be difficult to defend, and two new guided-missile destroyers at sea.
The second of these made headlines earlier this year when it capsized during launch. The warship has since resurfaced and appears to have been repaired.
While inspecting the new submarine, Kim said the construction of the destroyer and nuclear-powered submarine marked “a quantum leap forward in strengthening the combat capabilities of our fleet,” according to the Korean Central News Agency.
But even so, Easley points out, North Korea’s fleet remains inferior to South Korea’s fleet, which boasts the world’s best guided missile destroyers and new conventionally powered submarines.
“Once Mr. Kim sees South Korea’s superior technology, he may realize that he miscalculated,” Easley said.
One advantage for North Korea may be that it can acquire nuclear submarines sooner.
South Korea had wanted to build it for decades, but the decades-old nuclear deal with the United States kept it from building until October, when President Trump appeared to clear the way. But it could take a decade to design and build them.
Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, told CNN that North Korea could launch a submarine and then conduct a missile test within the next two years.
Based on the images, Hong analyzed that the submarine may already have a nuclear reactor and is only a few steps away from being ready for launch.
A new submarine wasn’t the only hint of North Korea’s future in images released Thursday.
Photos from the event showed Kim accompanied by his daughter, believed to be Kim Ju-ae, who has appeared in public many times in recent days, fueling speculation that Kim is preparing a future successor.
