North Korea will be building its first nuclear-powered submarine to enhance its nuclear weapons abilities, North Korean news agency KCNA announced on Saturday.
The news posted a photo showing the country's leader, Kim Jong-Un, inspecting what seems to be part of the submarine.
According to the state media, Kim Jong-Un, the general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, toured the shipyards "to give field guidance at their shipbuilding."
The secretary of the WPK Central Committee, Jon Chun Ryong, the commander of the Navy of the Korean People's Army, Admiral Kim Myong Sik, and major leading officials of the WPK Central Committee accompanied Jong Un to the shipyards as well.
Kim said during the visit that naval power and nuclear armament were crucial to the sovereignty of the country, which was bound by sea on the eastern and western sides, according to KCNA.
"He expressed great satisfaction over the high spirit and labor feats of the workers who are registering signal successes in the implementation of the militant task for radically improving the modernity of our navy in the shortest span of time in line with the primary requirement for the state security and the world trend of naval force development," the KCNA stated.
Kim also said the country would not tolerate maritime and underwater military activities being carried out by enemies, such as deployments of strategic assets, and that its maritime defense would not be limited to a certain area but would cover as much as it is deemed necessary to maintain peace.
North Korea launched it in September 2023
North Korea launched its first operational "tactical nuclear attack submarine" and assigned it to the fleet that patrols the waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan in September 2023.
Submarine No. 841 - named Hero Kim Kun Ok after a North Korean historical figure - will be one of the main "underwater offensive means of the naval force" of North Korea, leader Kim Jong Un said at the launch ceremony.
Analysts said the vessel appears to be a modified Soviet-era Romeo-class submarine, which North Korea acquired from China in the 1970s and began producing domestically. Its design, with 10 launch tube hatches, showed it was most likely armed with ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, analysts said.
But such weapons won't add much value to the North's more robust land-based nuclear forces, because its submarines may not survive as long during a war, said Vann Van Diepen, a former US government weapons expert who works with the 38 North project in Washington.
"When this thing is field deployed, it's going to be quite vulnerable to allied anti-submarine warfare," he said. "So I think from a sort of hard-headed military standpoint this doesn't make a lot of sense."
At the launch ceremony, Kim said arming the navy with nuclear weapons was an urgent task and promised more underwater and surface vessels equipped with tactical nuclear weapons for the naval forces, KCNA reported.
"The submarine-launching ceremony heralded the beginning of a new chapter for bolstering up the naval force of the DPRK," KCNA said, using the initials of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
North Korea plans to turn other existing submarines into nuclear-armed vessels, and accelerate its push to eventually build nuclear-powered submarines, Kim said.
"Achieving a rapid development of our naval forces...is a priority that cannot be delayed given...the enemies' recent aggressive moves and military acts," the North Korean leader said in a speech, apparently referring to the United States and South Korea.
North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs are banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions, and the submarine launch drew condemnation from South Korea and Japan.