11/4/2023 0 Comments Launch of first nuclear submarine![]() "While North Korea has added a missile compartment and externally emulated more contemporary design features. "This is the same - albeit more extensively modified - submarine North Korea showed us way back in July 2019," Joseph Dempsey, a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, wrote on X. In 2019, Kim was shown in state media inspecting a previously unreported submarine. However, experts doubt if all of them are operational given their age, according to NTI. Seoul and Washington have ramped up defence cooperation in response, staging joint military exercises with advanced stealth jets and US strategic assets, and holding naval drills with Japan.Īccording to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a US-based think tank, North Korea is estimated to have between 64 and 86 submarines, one of the world's largest fleets. North Korea has conducted a record number of weapons tests this year, and last month failed in its second attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit. On Thursday, KCNA said Kim inspected the submarine as it prepared for a test cruise, and entered it "to acquaint himself with its weapon system and underwater operation capability".ĭuring the launch ceremony, which involved confetti and balloons, Kim stressed "the strategic and tactical plan to continuously enhance the modernity of underwater and surface forces", KCNA said. North Korea will turn its existing submarines into attack vessels equipped with nuclear weapons, Kim said. Kim said the sub "will perform its combat mission as one of core underwater offensive means of the naval force of the DPRK", the agency added. 841 - named the Hero Kim Kun Ok - "heralded the beginning of a new chapter for bolstering up the naval force of the DPRK", KCNA said, referring to the abbreviation of North Korea's formal name.
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