Yes, North Korea Does Have a Nuclear Missile Submarine

Key point: Pyongyang’s Gorae-class Sinpo-B submarine has been modified to launch nuclear missiles and North Korea has been testing it.

North Korea’s Kim dynasty has long practiced an unsubtle form of political signaling which can be summed up: when things aren’t going its way, launch some missiles.

Thus after then National Security Advisor John Bolton, who has long advocated forceful “regime change” in North Korea, met with South Korean officials in July 2019, Pyongyang celebrated his arrival by test-firing two new short-range ballistic missiles.

And as U.S. troops prepared to embark on their its first major military exercise with South Korea after a long hiatus in August 2019, on July 22 Pyongyang released photos of Kim Jong Un in gray suit visiting a dry dock to inspect what analysts have concluded is an old Romeo-class submarine modified to launch ballistic missiles through its sail (conning tower).

A KCNA press release pointedly indicated the submarine’s role in “strategic tasks”—a very thinly-veiled reference to its role launching nuclear weapons.

This marks the second ballistic missile submarine (SSB) deployed by Pyongyang since the Gorae-class Sinpo-B submarine test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in 201.

However, the appearance of the nuclear-armed Romeo puts a new twist on previous intelligence reports. Was an evolved Gorae-class boat canceled—or does North Korea already have a third, presumably more modern, ballistic-missile submarine waiting in the wings?

The Convoluted Origin Story of North Korea’s Romeos

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