Kim Jong-un’s nuclear submarine: a show of force or a mock-up

Pyongyang showed off its “first nuclear submarine”but the published footage raised doubts among military analysts.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the shipyard where Pyongyang says the first North Korean nuclear submarine is being built. This was reported by the state agency KCNAaccompanying the news with a series of official photographs.

During the visit, Kim Jong-un reiterated the “negative security situation” and blamed it on USA And South Korea. According to him, the current situation requires accelerated development nuclear weapons of naval forces DPRK.

However, the published footage raised serious questions among military experts and analysts. In specialized communities, they note that the hull of the demonstrated submarine looks unusually smooth, without characteristic traces of welds, and the shape of the bow differs from the designs used on serial nuclear submarines.

According to some experts, this may indicate that the vessel shown is mockup or design that is far from ready for actual use. The lack of technical details and the demonstration of the object exclusively in a controlled environment only strengthens these doubts.

During the visit, Kim Jong-un also got acquainted with the developments “new secret underwater weapons” and was present at the tests of anti-aircraft missiles. According to KCNA, the missiles hit training targets at a distance of up to 200 kilometershowever, no independent confirmation of these data has been provided.

Ilya Kramnik, researcher at the Center for the Study of Strategic Planning at IMEMO RAS, author of the channel @kramnikcat

DPRK showed photographs of the new submarine, reporting that Kim Jong-un inspected the construction of a nuclear submarine with a displacement of 8.7 thousand tons.

What can you tell about her by her appearance? Firstly, this is obviously a missile carrier – with a “hump” of the missile compartment superstructure behind the wheelhouse and silo covers. Judging by the proportions of the hull, the boat is quite narrow and, most likely, the silos are placed in one row, as on the Soviet nuclear missile submarines of the first generation of Project 658. Thus, the boat carries five missiles.

Secondly, the boat’s hull does not yet have anti-sonar coating, but it is not a fact that it will not receive it by the time it is launched. The submarine, apparently, has extended onboard antennas of the hydroacoustic complex (GAS). The main antenna of the sonar should, in theory, be located in the nose. Its fairing is not visible – and, most likely, in order to maintain secrecy, it was painted over with the same primer as the entire body. However, it is probably located under the covers of the torpedo tubes, visible at the top of the bow of the hull.

What does North Korea’s nuclear-powered missile submarine change in the overall balance of power?

A lot. Today, North Korea’s nuclear weapons, concentrated on its territory, are quite vulnerable. Both in the case of a likely first strike by the Americans and their allies, and for their missile defense systems capable of hitting missiles in the accelerating part of the trajectory.

The appearance of a nuclear submarine missile carrier dramatically complicates the situation: the boat will have to be searched at sea. Most likely, the promising submarine will serve in the Eastern Fleet, which allows it to be on duty in the fairly deep Sea of ​​Japan. In this case, the threat from Japan’s anti-submarine forces remains, but another opportunity arises. The alliance agreement between Russia and the DPRK allows us to assume the possibility of North Korean submarines being on duty in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, where the operation of Japanese and American forces is sharply complicated.

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