North Korea is building its largest-ever warship ever — possibly more than double the size of anything in its existing fleet, satellite images suggest.
The concerning images captured by Maxar Technologies apparently show the docked ship under construction at the Nampo shipyard on April 6, on North Korea’s west coast.
Cranes, ship parts and other construction equipment can be seen on the dock next to the massive boat — which analysts suspect is a guided-missile frigate with the capacity to launch missiles against targets on both land and sea.
“The FFG is approximately [459 feet] long, making it the largest warship manufactured in North Korea,” according to an analysis by Joseph Bermudez Jr. and Jennifer Jun at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which published the images earlier this month.
The warship itself is covered in a massive layer of netting to limit overhead visibility as crews work to complete internal construction, before handing it over to the Navy, Bermudez and Jun wrote.
Based on the massive scale and “superstructure,” the experts believe the warship is the same one that Kim Jong-un was photographed visiting in early March.
State media at the time called it a “nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine,” and appeared to have the capacity to carry at least 10 missiles.
It is not clear if the vessel is one of the two helicopter frigates that North Korea declared it was manufacturing to the International Maritime Organization in 2023.
North Korea is beefing up its fleet after repeated calls by Kim to strengthen the country’s Navy.
Pyongyang’s new ships are equipped with vertical launch systems (VSL), which allow ships to carry more missiles and make launching and reloading easier, experts said.
The country has also developed several different types of missiles that would be compatible with VLS cells, including anti-ship cruise missiles, land attack cruise missiles, air defence missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles, according to experts.
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