North Korea submarine-launches two cruise missile types — SkimNews
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- North Korea test-fired two types of submarine-launched strategic cruise missiles off its east coast on Wednesday, with state media KCNA saying the exercise aimed to examine war deterrent reliability and improve the navy's skill in performing strategic missions.
- One of the missiles was a Pulhwasal-3-31 — the same type of strategic cruise missile North Korea said it test-fired from land the previous week, per KCNA.
- Senior military officers observed the tests, and KCNA added that they had no adverse impact on the security of neighbouring countries.
- North Korea has not yet launched a modern missile submarine in full operation — a top military priority for Kim Jong Un, who last year toured an 8,700-tonne nuclear-powered missile submarine under construction and criticised a US-South Korea nuclear submarine deal as a threat to peninsula stability.
- The tests come amid a recent flurry of launches: a hypersonic intermediate-range missile on October 3 and multiple ballistic missiles earlier this week, days after South Korean President Lee Jae Myung publicly oversaw South Korea's first hypersonic missile test.
- Inter-Korean relations have further soured after a September landmine blast in the DMZ wounded three South Korean soldiers — a joint South Korean-UN investigation concluded North Korean forces planted the mines about a year ago — while Pyongyang has accelerated military fortification under Kim Jong Un's 2023 "hostile-states" policy to permanently sever ties with Seoul.
Why it matters: Submarine-launched cruise missiles give Kim a platform harder to track and neutralize than land-based systems, advancing toward his stated goal of an operational nuclear-powered missile submarine — a capability North Korea has not yet demonstrated. The timing matters: these launches land days after South Korean President Lee Jae Myung personally oversaw a hypersonic missile test, framing this as tit-for-tat signalling rather than routine testing.
Ask SkimNews
