N. Korea pushes nuclear-powered submarine project
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has inspected a project to build a nuclear-powered submarine, state-run media reported on Thursday, underscoring Pyongyang’s push to strengthen its naval capabilities.
Kim criticized United States-South Korean plans to build nuclear-powered submarines, saying they would heighten instability on the Korean Peninsula and require a response, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), which for the first time released photos of a North Korean submarine.
“Given the negative security situation that has come as present reality only, it is an urgent task and indispensable option to further accelerate the radical development of the modernization and nuclear weaponization of the naval force,” Kim was quoted as saying. KCNA did not disclose when and where the inspection took place.
Strategic plan
Kim was briefed in detail on ongoing research into unspecified “new underwater secret weapons” and outlined a strategic plan to reorganize naval forces and establish new units, the report said.
North Korea has pledged, under its five-year national defense plan adopted at the ruling Workers’ Party congress in January 2021, to acquire nuclear-powered submarines and underwater-launched nuclear strategic weapons.
Kim was accompanied by his daughter when he inspected the 8,700-ton “nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine,” the news agency said. When he last inspected a nuclear submarine project in March, KCNA released images believed to show the underside of the vessel.
As North Korea has recently strengthened military cooperation with Russia, attention has turned to whether Moscow is providing technology for Pyongyang’s nuclear submarine project.
Putin message
KCNA, meanwhile, said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a New Year greeting message to Kim last week, saying the dispatch of North Korean soldiers to aid Moscow in its war against Ukraine “clearly proved the invincible friendship and militant fraternity” of the two countries.
On Wednesday, Kim also observed a test-firing of new-type anti-aircraft missiles that accurately hit simulated high-altitude targets at a distance of about 200 kilometers, the news agency said.
A spokesperson of North Korea’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday lambasted the entry of a US Navy nuclear submarine into the South Korean port of Busan the previous day, saying Pyongyang will “consider countermeasures corresponding to the US nuclear muscle flexing,” according to KCNA.
