Update: North Korea releases partial images of ‘newly built submarine'

Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released on 23 July partial images of what it described as a “newly built” submarine that was shown being inspected by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in a shipyard at an undisclosed location.

North Korea released on 23 July partial images of what it described as a “newly built” submarine. (KCNA)

The KCNA reported that same day that the boat, which was “designed and built to be capable of fully implementing the military strategic intention of the [ruling Workers’] Party [of Korea] under various circumstances”, will “perform its duty in the operational waters of the East Sea of Korea” (also known as the Sea of Japan), adding that the submarine’s operational deployment is “near at hand”.

Kim was also quoted as stressing “the need to steadily and reliably increase the national defence capability by directing big efforts to the development of the naval weapons and equipment such as submarines”.

No further details were provided about the platform or its capabilities, and no information was revealed about when and where the images were taken.

The latest developments come after the ‘38 North’ website of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies reported on 12 June that commercial satellite imagery captured between 11 April and 5 May had shown “continuing submarine construction of possibly another Sinpo [Gorae]-class ballistic missile submarine [SSB]” at North Korea’s Sinpo South Shipyard on the country’s east coast.

On 12 April 38 North reported that satellite imagery indicated that construction of the submarine had been ongoing “for several years”. Satellite imagery of that Sinpo yard throughout 2017 indicated that work was being conducted on submarine pressure hull sections for potentially a modified follow-on of the North’s Gorae-class boat.