On Sept. 6, amid a broadcast North Korean ceremony, dictator Kim Jong-Un presided over the official launch ceremony of his new large conventionally-powered ballistic-missile-armed submarine (SSB), called “841,” and suggested it may be the first of many, posing an increasing regional nuclear and a global proliferation threat.
North Korea’s Sinpo shipyard, showing the Sept. 6, 2023 launch of a new 10-missile armed submarine, with the size of the construction building suggesting another may be being built. / KCNA
The U.S. response to the revival of the China-Russia-North Korean alliance, last seen during the Korean War, was to dispatch a diplomat to Seoul for consultations.
A program that likely began construction in the early to mid-2010s, North Korean images from July 2019 first revealed this submarine as being partially built, with only indications that it would emerge with an elongated “sail” that would contain multiple missiles.