Builders Sinpo South Shipyard Building 6 Displacement 2,000 | Preceded by Sang-O-class submarine Type Diesel submarine | |
Operators Democratic People's Republic of Korea | ||
The Sinpo class submarine is a new class of submarine produced in North Korea. One submarine has been observed under construction. It is the largest submarine designed and built for the Korean People's Navy.
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Design and Features
The design may be influenced by older Yugoslavian designs such as Heroj and Sava. There has been speculation the design is influenced by modern Russian submarines of Kilo class, or Golf class submarine, but the submarine under construction is significantly smaller than these designs.
Despite being possibly less advanced and capable of western or South Korean vessels, they could still represent a significant step forward by the submarine fleet of the Korean People's Navy. If the design is successful, the Sinpo class could replace the aging Romeo-class submarines. However it is possibly a one-off experimental submarine as the Korean People's Navy has built previously.
Armaments
At first a blue cover on the sail has been proposed as a possible vertical tube for missile launcher on a blog-like website, though this was refuted by more reliable sources. Later however, new satellite pictures could confirm the presence of an opening on the conning tower to indicate the presence of tubes for launch of 1 or 2 missiles of unclear type.
The first released pictures of the submarines were associated with the test of the missile KN-11.
Speculations
Only satellite images are available, as no official pictures have been released by North Korea.
South Korean media has suggested that North Korea managed to reverse-engineer or modify one of the old Golf-II hulls that North Korea imported in early '90s. However, this claim has also been refuted by some western analyst sources.