Russia suspected of supplying North Korea with key nuclear submarine technology

South Korea is investigating reports that Russia has supplied North Korea with nuclear submarine reactor modules, a move analysts see as highly plausible and one that could mark a breakthrough in Pyongyang’s decades-long push for a nuclear-powered navy.

Citing unnamed government sources, South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo reported that Moscow is thought to have supplied North Korea with two or three modules in the first half of this year, comprising reactor cores, turbines and cooling systems removed from decommissioned Russian submarines.

Wi Sung-lac, chief security adviser to South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, told reporters on Wednesday that the government could not confirm the existence of such intelligence.

But analysts say such a transfer, while provocative, would not be unrealistic given the growing military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang, particularly amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

“It is highly possible that the North persistently pressed Russia for help with submarine technology, including nuclear propulsion, and that Moscow eventually yielded to these demands,” Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), told This Week in Asia.

  

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