capsized on launch<\/a>. The warship was subsequently refloated and apparently repaired.\n <\/p>\n\n The build of the destroyers and nuclear submarines marked \u201ca leap forward in bolstering up the combat capabilities of our fleets,\u201d Kim said while inspecting the new sub, according to KCNA.\n <\/p>\n
\n But, even so, Easley notes North Korea\u2019s fleet remains inferior to the South\u2019s, which boasts some of the world\u2019s best guided-missile destroyers and new conventionally powered submarines.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cKim may realize that he has miscalculated once he observes South Korea\u2019s superior technology,\u201d Easley said.\n <\/p>\n
\n North Korea\u2019s one advantage may be having nuclear-powered submarines sooner.\n <\/p>\n
\n South Korea has wanted them for decades, but a decades-old nuclear agreement with the US had prevented it from building them, until October, when President Trump appeared to clear the path. But getting them designed and built could take a decade.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cNorth Korea could conduct missile tests [with the submarine] after launching it within the next two years,\u201d Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n
\n Based on the images, Hong analyzed that the submarine could be already loaded with a nuclear reactor, which leaves only a few more stages before it is ready to be launched.\n <\/p>\n
\n The new sub wasn\u2019t the only hint of North Korea\u2019s future that emerged in the images released Thursday.\n <\/p>\n
\n Pictures of the event show Kim was accompanied by his daughter, believed to be Kim Ju Ae, who has made a number of public appearances recently, prompting speculation he is preparing a future successor.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seoul, South Korea \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 North Korea on Thursday released new images of what it claims is its first…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":470097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-470096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115778464781910301","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"North](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/f68a3f669e78c846c02aef1077e-1.JPG\")
<\/p>\n