North Korea fires two types of submarine-launched missiles

North Korea test-fired two types of submarine-launched strategic cruise missiles in the sea east of the Korean Peninsula on Oct. 14, state media said, in what South Korean analysts believe was the first missile launch from the Hero Kim Kun Ok, the submarine Pyongyang unveiled three years ago as its first “tactical nuclear attack submarine.”

The Korean Central News Agency reported on Oct. 15 that the country’s Missile Administration carried out the launches. It did not give flight times, distances or missile names, but released photographs of a submarine and of missiles climbing away on trails of flame. Based on those images, South Korean experts concluded the launch platform was the 3,000-ton-class Hero Kim Kun Ok.

“The test-fire aimed to examine the current mobilized posture of the underwater combat systems and contributed to getting the Navy skilled in performing its strategic missions,” KCNA said.

Kim Jong Un did not attend. Senior Workers’ Party official Kim Jong Sik and Missile Administration chief Jang Chang Ha oversaw the launches together with navy underwater weapons engineers, KCNA said, adding that the test had no adverse impact on the security of neighboring countries.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff did not announce the launches on Wednesday but said the next day that it had tracked the missiles from before launch through the end of their flights, using assets it declined to identify because of confidentiality arrangements with the United States. A JCS spokesperson said one missile was fired from a vertical launch tube and the other from a torpedo tube, Yonhap reported.

North Korea launched Hero Kim Kun Ok, hull number 841, on Sept. 6, 2023, with Kim Jong Un saying at the ceremony that arming the navy with nuclear weapons could not be delayed further. Despite its label, the boat is a diesel-electric submarine rebuilt from an old Soviet-designed Romeo-class hull; the “nuclear” designation refers to the nuclear-capable missiles it is meant to carry. Until this week, the submarine had not been publicly seen firing a weapon.

Some South Korean analysts told Korea JoongAng Daily that the two weapons may have been a longer-range Hwasal-2 and a shorter-range Pulhwasal-3-31, a missile with a reported range of up to 2,000 km (1,240 miles) that North Korea says can carry its Hwasan-31 tactical nuclear warhead. At that range, the missile could reach all of South Korea and U.S. military bases in Japan. One analyst quoted by the newspaper said firing two missile types with different speeds and approach paths at staggered times would make them harder for air defenses to intercept.

Cruise missiles fly low, often around 100 meters (330 feet) above the surface, which makes them harder to spot on radar than ballistic missiles. Unlike ballistic missile launches, cruise missile tests are not banned under United Nations Security Council sanctions on North Korea.

The previous submarine-launched cruise missile test North Korea reported came in January 2024, when Pulhwasal-3-31 missiles were fired from the smaller 2,000-ton-class experimental submarine 8.24 Yongung with Kim Jong Un watching. Earlier this week, North Korea also fired tactical ballistic missiles from the Pyongyang area toward the same sea.