North Korea has released its first pictures of a nuclear-powered submarine under construction, which could dramatically change the security calculus in the region.
State media released a bulletin on Saturday with photos of dictator Kim Jong-un visiting a North Korean shipyard that is said to build military vessels.
On the visit, Kim “learned about the building of a nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine” as part of the country’s “important goals … for building the country into an advanced maritime power,” the bulletin said.
The release of the pictures comes before the US and South Korea are due to begin their annual Freedom Shield joint military exercises, which start on Monday and run until March 20.
North Korea has ramped up criticism ahead of these drills, as it does each year, with state media saying they “deteriorate circumstances in the Korean Peninsula”.
Neither a date nor a location were disclosed with the photos, and it is not possible to independently confirm North Korea’s claims about its defence capabilities, given the secretive kingdom’s blockade of independent media.
Experts, however, believe the language that state media used in its announcement indicates that the submarine would carry nuclear-capable weapons.
The naval vessel pictured appeared to be a 6,000-ton-class or 7,000-ton-class submarine that could carry 10 missiles, Moon Keun-sik, a South Korean submarine expert, told the AP.
“It would be absolutely threatening to us and the US,” Mr Moon told the news agency.
Bringing a nuclear-powered submarine into service would significantly increase North Korea’s threat as it could deliver underwater missile launch capability, which is challenging to detect.
This could heighten tensions with longtime rivals the US and South Korea, with which North Korea is technically still at war. Though fighting ceased in 1953, the two countries never signed a peace treaty.
Generally speaking, nuclear submarines – dubbed the “stealth service” – can travel deep underwater, relatively undetected for weeks or even months at a time.
A number of countries, including the US, UK, France, Russia, China, India and Pakistan have the capability, or have been developing such weapons systems.
How North Korea manages to fund its nuclear weapons and missile programme remains mysterious, given that its economy has been hit by heavy sanctions for many years.
Still, Pyongyang has ploughed ahead, finding funds to develop new weapons systems despite UN Security Council sanctions, and despite the fact that much of the population often goes hungry.
Russia, however, has been a longtime security partner for North Korea, and analysts have suggested Moscow may have assisted in the project.
North Korea, for instance, sent 11,000 troops in November to fight on behalf of Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. North Korean troops were placed on the frontlines, but taken off within months after suffering heavy casualties.
China, too, has acted as a crutch for North Korea in a number of areas, from economic to security arenas, partly as a way to keep its smaller but bombastic neighbour in check.
Mr Moon, who teaches at Seoul’s Hanyang University, said North Korea may have received Russian technological assistance to build a nuclear reactor for the submarine in return for supplying conventional weapons and troops to support Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine.
He also said North Korea could launch the submarine in one or two years to test its capability before its actual deployment.
Kim has emphasised a wish-list of advanced weapons systems, including nuclear-powered submarines, solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, spy satellites and multi-warhead missiles.
Since 2016, North Korea has held a number of underwater-launched ballistic missile tests, though they were conducted from the same 2,000-ton-class submarine, which has a single launch tube.
Experts, however, have viewed this as a test platform, rather than an operational vessel.
