South Korea has launched an investigation into reports of Russia’s alleged supply of nuclear reactor modules for North Korean submarines.
According to the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo, citing government sources, Moscow allegedly transferred two or three modules to Pyongyang during the first half of this year.
According to the newspaper, these are reactor cores, turbines, and cooling systems that were removed from decommissioned Russian submarines.
“Such a move could be a breakthrough in North Korea’s longstanding desire to build its own nuclear fleet,” the article says.
Wee Sung-luck, chief security adviser to South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, noted that the government currently has no confirmed information about such transfers.
At the same time, experts do not rule out that Pyongyang could have persistently demanded help from Moscow with nuclear submarine technology. “It is likely that Russia eventually agreed to such requests,” Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), noted.
According to him, North Korea’s limited shipbuilding capabilities significantly limit its ability to independently build modern missile-carrying submarines. As an example, he cited the Hero Kim Kun Ok submarine, presented in 2023 as the country’s first tactical nuclear submarine.
In fact, this boat is a deeply modified Soviet Romeo-class submarine with a diesel engine that is far from modern nuclear fleet standards. It is equipped with four large and six smaller vertical launchers for ballistic and cruise missiles with nuclear warheads.
This March, North Korean state media released photos of leader Kim Jong-un inspecting a facility described as a construction site for a nuclear-powered guided missile submarine. This marked a new stage in the country’s naval ambitions.
Pyongyang has long viewed the creation of a nuclear submarine fleet as a key element in completing its own nuclear deterrent.
At the same time, analysts emphasize that North Korea still lacks critical technologies. The most challenging task remains the creation of a compact low-power reactor for submarines.
“Pyongyang may try to reverse engineer the Russian reactor, disassemble it to create drawings and tests to obtain the necessary know-how,” Hong Min explained.
