TYRANT Kim Jong-un has unveiled North Korea’s first nuclear-powered submarine which could strike the West with nuke missiles.

Pictures released by the state media – known to be Kim’s propaganda machine – show the mighty submarine being built at a naval facility.

Reuters

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un inspects a nuclear submarine during a visit to a shipyard[/caption]

Reuters

Experts say it looks like a 7,000-ton-class one, which can carry about 10 missiles[/caption]

Reuters

Kim said that North Korea aims to modernize water-surface and underwater warships[/caption]

Kim Jong-un was seen at a shipbuilding facility inspecting the construction of the vessel.

The Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, didn’t provide details on the submarine, but said that Kim was briefed on its construction.

A bulletin read: “[Kim] learned about the building of a nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine as part of the country’s important goals … for building the country into an advanced maritime power.”

Analysts say, based on the images of the unfinished vessel, that the naval vessel could be a 6,000-ton-class or 7,000-ton-class one which can carry about 10 missiles.

Moon Keun-sik, a South Korean submarine expert who teaches at Seoul’s Hanyang University, said the term “strategic guided missiles” meant it would carry nuclear-capable weapons.

He added: “It would be absolutely threatening to [South Korea] and the US.”

During his visits to the shipyards, Kim said that North Korea aims to modernize water-surface and underwater warships simultaneously.

He stressed the need to make the incomparably overwhelming warships fulfill their mission to contain “the inveterate gunboat diplomacy of the hostile forces”.

The release of these pictures comes as the US and South Korea prepare to kick off their annual Freedom Shield joint military exercises on Monday.

North Korea has been dialing up its fiery rhetoric against the US ahead of the joint military drill, which Kim says could “deteriorate circumstances in the Korean Peninsula”.

A nuclear-powered submarine was among a long wish list of sophisticated weaponry that Kim vowed to introduce against the west – especially the US.

Other weapons were solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, spy satellites and multi-warhead missiles.

North Korea has since performed a run of testing activities to acquire them.

Experts believe that Kim’s regime obtaining a greater ability to fire missiles from underwater is a worrying development, because it’s difficult for its rivals to detect such launches in advance.

Moon said that North Korea may have received Russian technological assistance to build a nuclear reactor to be used in the submarine in exchange for sending its troops to fight against Ukraine.

He also said that North Korea could launch the submarine in one or two years to test its capability before its actual deployment.

North Korea already has an estimated 70-90 diesel-powered submarines in one of the world’s largest fleets.

However, they are mostly aging ones capable of launching only torpedoes and mines, not missiles.

In 2023, North Korea said that it had launched what it called its first tactical nuclear attack submarine.

It has conducted a slew of underwater-launched ballistic missile tests since 2016, but all launches were made from the same 2,000-ton-class submarine which has a single launch tube.

Many experts call it a test platform, rather than an operational submarine in active service.

It comes after North Korea unveiled its largest naval destroyer that could house a vertical launchpad capable of firing guided cruise missiles.

The mighty vessel – said to be similar to Russia‘s famed Admiral Grigorovich frigate – is expected to substantially boost North Korea‘s naval capabilities.

Reuters

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un visits a shipyard[/caption]

KCTV

Pictures released by the North Korean state media show the vessel under construction[/caption]

KCTV

Kim Jong-un was seen at the shipbuilding facility inspecting the construction of the vessel[/caption]