North Korea Unveils Its First Nuclear-Powered Submarine

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has just raised the bar for global security concerns by revealing its first nuclear-powered submarine under construction. The announcement, made through state media on Saturday, came with images of what they are calling a "nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine." This coincided with leader Kim Jong Un’s visits to key shipyards building warships.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) offered little in terms of technical details but confirmed Kim received a briefing on the submarine’s construction. Experts, however, are piecing together the puzzle. Moon Keun-sik, a South Korean submarine specialist from Seoul’s Hanyang University, suggested the vessel could be a 6,000 to 7,000-ton-class submarine, potentially equipped to carry 10 nuclear-capable missiles. That’s the kind of hardware that makes military strategists lose sleep.

Kim’s ambitions for advanced weaponry, including this submarine, were no secret. Back in 2021, he pledged to develop a range of sophisticated arms, from hypersonic weapons to spy satellites. Since then, North Korea has been on a relentless testing spree, making strides toward fulfilling these ambitions.

The submarine’s ability to launch missiles from underwater poses a serious challenge for South Korea and the U.S. Advance detection of underwater launches is notoriously tough, making this development particularly unsettling.

But here's the kicker: how does a heavily sanctioned and economically struggling nation manage to develop such high-tech weaponry? Some speculate that North Korea may have received Russian technological support, possibly in exchange for supplying conventional weapons and troops to aid Russia's efforts in Ukraine. This potential collaboration, while unconfirmed, might explain the leap in capability.

Moon added that North Korea could test the submarine within the next couple of years before deploying it. Currently, North Korea’s submarine fleet consists of an estimated 70–90 diesel-powered vessels, many of which are aging and limited to launching torpedoes and mines.

In fact, North Korea previously claimed to have launched a "tactical nuclear attack submarine" in 2023, but experts largely dismissed the claim, suspecting it was just a repurposed diesel-powered submarine first disclosed in 2019.

For years, North Korea has conducted underwater ballistic missile tests, but these have relied on a single 2,000-ton-class submarine outfitted with just one launch tube. That vessel is widely regarded as a test platform rather than an operational submarine.

Meanwhile, North Korea hasn’t eased up on its fiery rhetoric. With annual U.S.–South Korea military drills set to begin Monday, Pyongyang is ramping up its verbal salvos. During his shipyard visits, Kim emphasized the modernization of both water-surface and underwater warships, vowing to make them “fulfill their mission” against “the inveterate gunboat diplomacy of hostile forces.”

While the exact timeline and capabilities of this new submarine remain unclear, one thing is certain: North Korea’s determination to flex its military muscle is as relentless as ever.