N. Korea Building New Frigate

ACCORDING to footage released by North Korean state media, the country has apparently begun building a new 4,000-tonne frigate for the Korean People’s Army Navy. Footage showed supreme leader Kim Jong-un visiting a shipyard where the new warship was being constructed, speculated to be the largest warship ever constructed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

With no official designation disclosed as of yet, South Korean military officials said that the vessel is being built in the North’s western port city of Nampho and is assessed to be capable of launching missiles via a vertical launch system (VLS. Though not installed yet, the images showed a large space in front of the ship’s bridge, suggesting the VLS could be installed there. Further speculations mentioned a possible phased-array radar, both features were previously unseen on North Korean ship designs.

Media reports stated that the new features of the vessel mimic the configurations of the Russian Navy’s latest Project 20386 corvette design. The 20386 design is a larger, enhanced version of the Steregushchiy-class and Gremyashchiy-class corvettes.

On December 18, North Korean forces took part in the Russian Navy’s Ocean-2024 naval drills as an observer, the first occasion of the KPA Navy’s attendance in that capacity. The exercises were the largest naval exercise conducted by the Russian Navy in the last three decades, involving 90,000 personnel onboard 400 warships, submarines, auxiliary vessels, 120 aircraft and helicopters.North Korea observed along with Vietnam, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.-shp/adj/dl (Pix:KCNA)