A new underwater drone, widely presumed to function much like a nuclear-armed torpedo, was revealed at North Korea’s latest military parade, in the capital Pyongyang yesterday. While new unmanned aerial vehicles were also among the highlights of the parade, the underwater drone suggests that North Korea is continuing to look at novel means of delivering nuclear warheads as it expands its strategic weapons ambitions
The underwater drones were transported on flatbed trucks through Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square yesterday evening, as part of the military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.
The mysterious uncrewed underwater vehicle has been variously identified as a ‘nuclear attack drone,’ ‘uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV),’ or ‘long-range/long-endurance nuclear torpedo.’ While it remains unclear how best to describe it, most observers agree that it is intended to carry a nuclear warhead. In this sense, it is broadly similar in concept to Russia’s Poseidon ultra-long-endurance torpedo, and also has a strategic mission.
In common with the Poseidon, the new North Korean drone has an apparent pump-jet propulsor at the rear and a similar arrangement of cruciform control surfaces, each of which incorporates a folding mechanism.
However, while the Poseidon features nuclear propulsion as well as a nuclear warhead, the North Korean underwater drone almost certainly relies on battery propulsion. There is no evidence, at this point, that North Korea is working on the kinds of nuclear technologies that would provide a small enough reactor to power such a vehicle. Regardless, the ranges involved with North Korea deploying such a weapon against the South, or even Japan, and even if it were to loiter for some period before attacking, are vastly less than what Poseidon was built to overcome.
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