Overview
- State media published photos of Kim Jong Un inspecting a roughly 8,700-ton guided‑missile submarine inside a covered assembly hall, indicating it has not been launched and its reactor status is unknown.
- KCNA said Kim ordered the navy’s rapid “nuclearization,” a reorganization of naval forces and research into “new secret submarine weapons.”
- Kim also oversaw tests of “new type” long‑range, high‑altitude air‑defense missiles over the East Sea, according to the state outlet.
- KCNA carried a message from Vladimir Putin praising “unbreakable friendship” and lauding North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region; South Korean and Western intelligence report thousands of DPRK troops sent and estimate about 2,000 deaths.
- Experts describe the disclosure as strategic signaling, cite possible but unproven Russian technical help, and note Kim’s criticism of South Korea’s U.S.-approved nuclear‑propulsion submarine pursuit in October.