Underwater drones that carry nukes: North Korea’s new military weapons look scary

Senior Chinese and Russian delegates joined North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this week to celebrate Pyongyang’s annual military parade. Victory Day is when the Hermit Kingdom commemorates the end of hostilities in the Korean War, and North Korea tends to celebrate with a full display of the country’s latest weapons.

This year, the parade unsurprisingly featured North Korea’s Hwasong-17 and Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles. Pyongyang launched the Hwasong-18 earlier this month as part of a series of provocations.

Pyongyang’s New Underwater Drone

In addition to parading its advanced ICBMs, Pyongyang debuted a new underwater drone that analysts believe functions similar to a nuclear-armed torpedo. The drone’s development indicates that the country is looking for new ways to deliver nuclear weapons. Indeed, industry experts largely agree the drone is designed to carry nuclear warheads.

Back in April, Pyongyang claimed to have tested an underwater drone capable of carrying a nuke. Designated as the Haeil-2 unmanned underwater nuclear attack boat, the weapon’s test warhead was detonated roughly three days after the drone ventured off North Korea’s coast. The drone’s predecessor, the Haeil-1, was reportedly tested one month prior, and the boast is that it is capable of creating a “radioactive tsunami.” U.S. officials believe that since 2021, North Korea has conducted more than 50 test launches involving its underwater drone. In 2022, state media also claimed that the Haeil drones achieved full operational capabilities.

What We Know About the Haeil Drones

Experts with The Drive have compared the Haeil to Russia’s Poseidon torpedo. Also known as Status-6 in Russia, this autonomous, nuclear-powered underwater vehicle can deliver nuclear and conventional weapons.

Similar to the Poseidon, the North Korean drone features a pump-jet propulsor at the rear. However, as detailed by The Drive, the Haeil likely relies on battery propulsion, while the Poseidon features nuclear 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.”

While the Haeil drones are not nearly as capable as Russia’s Poseidon, they threaten North Korea’s adversaries, including South Korea and the United States, because they give Pyongyang the ability to send assets to strategically important locations without being detected.

North Korea’s Expanding Weapons Development

The debut of the underwater drone at this year’s Victory Day parade comes as Pyongyang accelerates the pace of its threats, provocations, and weapons development. Despite the country’s pledge in 2018 to work toward “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Pyongyang has carried out more than 100 missile tests over the last year. In addition to ballistic missiles capable of reaching Seoul and Tokyo, Pyongyang is continuously developing longer-range rockets designed to strike the United States.

North Korea’s most recent Hwasong-18 launch became the country’s longest-ever missile test. The solid-fueled ICBM reportedly flew for more than 70 minutes and landed in the sea east of the Korean peninsula, according to Japan. The UN Security Council has issued many resolutions banning all ballistic missile and nuclear tests by Pyongyang. The Kim regime defies these with regularity.

Overall, industry officials predict that North Korea has assembled between 40 and 50 nuclear weapons. However, a 2021 study by RAND and the Asan Institute placed the total number much higher, at 116. The country has also conducted six atomic tests over the years. As detailed by The New York Times, “In 2017, the most recent test, the estimated yield of 120 to 250 kilotons dwarfed the 15 to 20 kiloton US bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. North Korea probably has developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit into its ballistic missile warheads.”