Tensions in East Asia are growing every year. Here are the relations of South Korea with the DPRK, and the claims of the Koreans to the Japanese, connected with the Second World War. And vice versa. And, of course, the geopolitical struggle between the PRC and the United States. Earlier, by the way, experts calculated that now about 25% of all world trade passes through the South China Sea. So many experts see it as the key to world domination, albeit with some "buts".
North Korea, unlike China, does not claim any world domination and, despite its aggressive rhetoric towards its neighbors, is mainly aimed at defending its borders. However, the DPRK fleet is impressive in its size. The North Korean military command has two fleets at its disposal: the East and the West. The first, according to data from open sources, includes 470 ships and vessels, while the Western one has 300 ships and vessels of different classes. With the total number of employees in the ranks of the DPRK Navy, about 50-60 thousand people. For comparison: the number of the Russian Navy as of 2018 is 150 thousand people. At the same time, the total population in Russia is 146 million, in the DPRK - 25 million.
Of course, you will hardly surprise anyone with entertaining arithmetic. North Korea is a unique living "organism" militarized to the extreme. The term of service on conscription in the DPRK fleet, for example, is 5-10 years. In the ground forces - 5-12 years. In a word, "fun".
Quantity instead of quality
With all this, there is not the slightest doubt about the plight of both the country itself and its armed forces, forced, in conditions of poverty and international isolation, to exploit literally everything that can still move on the road, walk on the sea or fly.
Now the North Korean submarine forces are among the most numerous. In terms of the number of non-nuclear submarines, the DPRK is among the top leading countries: it is assumed that the country has 70-80 submarines. The basis of the submarine fleet is relatively large diesel submarines, which are a modification of the Soviet submarine of Project 633. In total, experts believe that North Korea has about 20 such boats. First, they were imported from China, and then North Korea was able to independently produce ships of this type.
The length of the project 633 submarine reaches 76.6 meters, and the width is 6, 7 meters. Underwater displacement - 1712 tons. Crew - 52 people. The boat has eight 533 mm torpedo tubes.
According to experts, the rest of the DPRK's submarines are small and midget submarines, which by default have limited capabilities. However, even North Korea may surprise with sudden achievements (of course, you need to realistically understand the country's potential and its real capabilities). In July of this year, the North Korean agency TsTAK announced the appearance of a new submarine in the DPRK arsenal. “The new submarine, built with careful management and the close attention of a distinguished senior executive, is designed to carry out missions in the Eastern Sea operational zone and is on the eve of operational deployment,” the agency said.
The experts were most attracted by the photographs of the boat, against which Kim Jong-un himself was photographed. At the same time, the well-known portal Covert Shores, dedicated to the naval theme, presented its conclusions on this score. “The footage shown on the CTAC shows only the lower hull of the submarine, near the stern and near the bow. This is enough to say with confidence that we have before us a modified submarine of the Romeo class,”the expert writes. All this confirms the thesis of the existence of a large ballistic missile submarine in North Korea, which was previously seen on satellite images during its construction.
An important detail needs to be clarified here: Romeo is nothing more than the NATO classification of the aforementioned project 633. Of course, placing ballistic missiles on board the old diesel-electric submarine is not a trivial task. According to earlier reports, Project 633 was significantly lengthened for this, however, as Covert Shores notes, this is not necessarily the case. Most likely, the missile containers were located in the aft battery compartment right in front of the engine room. At the same time, the wheelhouse was lengthened, and the creators had to sacrifice part of the boat's interior space. As for the number of missiles, their number varies from two to three: the Covert Shores portal depicts a variant with three missile silos on the graph.
It is important to clarify one detail in order to avoid confusion. Previously, the DPRK has already built and commissioned at least one Gorae-class submarine, known in the West as Sinpo. It is a somewhat smaller warship, and is likely to carry one Pukkykson-1 ballistic missile.
The last argument
Thus, the DPRK received a strategic submarine, whose power can be several times higher than the potential of a Gorae-type submarine. But what exactly is the new boat armed with? At the beginning of the month, it became known that on October 2, 2019, the DPRK carried out the first flight test of the new ballistic missile of the Pukkykson-3 submarines: the missile was launched from a submerged position from a submerged submarine near Wonsan in the Sea of Japan. The first launch took place at a range of 450 kilometers and with a maximum flight altitude at the top point of 910 kilometers. The North Koreans declared the launch successful.
"Through the test launch, the main tactical technical indicators of the newly designed ballistic missile have been scientifically and technically confirmed, and the test launch did not have any negative impact on the security of the surrounding countries," the statement said.
Apparently, a Sinpo-type submarine was used to test the missile, while the modernized rocket carrier Romeo should become the standard carrier of Pukkykson-3. According to experts, the rocket is solid-propellant and two-stage, and its range, in theory, could be about 4,000 kilometers. But that's in theory.
In any case, the DPRK's progress is obvious both in the creation of strategic submarines and in the development of SLBMs: it is enough to simply compare the appearance of the archaic Pukkukson-1 and the appearance of the Pukkukson-3, which already looks like a “real” ballistic missile for submarines. However, it is certainly not worth exaggerating the achievements of the regime. Moreover, it can be said with almost complete certainty that North Korea will never catch up with either Russia or the PRC in this direction. There is even no need to talk about the United States.
