Kim Jong-un is pleased: North Korea launched a submarine with tactical nuclear weapons

North Korea, which, according to Western intelligence services, supplies weapons to Russia, announced the launch of the first “tactical nuclear attack submarine.” The submarine “Hero Kim Gun Ok” was transferred to the fleet patrolling the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the ceremony of launching the submarine called it one of the main “underwater offensive weapons of the naval forces” North Korea.

He stressed that arming the country’s Navy with nuclear weapons is an urgent task and promised to increase the number of submarines and surface ships equipped with tactical nuclear weapons, writes Reuters.

Analysts believe that the submarine is a modification of the Soviet Project 633 submarine (NATO reporting name “Romeo”), which the DPRK bought from China in the 1970s and began producing domestically. Judging by the photographs, the ship is armed with ballistic and cruise missiles.

The legacy submarines that are used as the basis for a new submarine are relatively noisy, slow and have a limited range, and therefore are not as effective in war, said Vann Van Diepen, a former US government weapons expert.

“When this thing is deployed in the field, it will be very vulnerable to Allied anti-submarine forces. So I think from some sober military point of view it doesn’t make much sense.” Van Diepen said.

South Korea’s military said the submarine does not appear to be ready for normal operation. There are signs that North Korea is trying to exaggerate its capabilities, writes Reuters.

At the same time, a researcher at the Korean Institute for Defense Analysis (KIDA), Shin Seung Ki, in a conversation with Reuters, warned that South Korea and the United States cannot guarantee the detection and destruction of such submarines.

“It is clear that North Korea has significantly expanded and strengthened the operational capabilities of its naval forces compared to the past,” - he said.

Let us recall that at the end of June, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited the DPRK, where Kim Jong-un personally showed him new ballistic missiles and drones.