North Korea tests underwater nuke drones for Kim Jong-un ‘radioactive tsunami’

The country’s Central Military Commission has ordered squadrons in its East Sea Fleet to operate nuclear-armed underwater drones on a trial basis, reports Daily NK

Kim Jong-un plans to unleash a “radioactive tsunami” after he was seen inspecting underwater nuclear drones testing.

The country’s military has ordered its East Sea Fleet to carry out nuclear-armed underwater drones on a trial basis after Kim stressed the importance of equipping the navy with nuclear capabilities.^[1] The move is said to be preparation for full-scale deployment. A military source has told Daily NK that a government agency has ordered the military to prepare the “Haeil” (tsunami) underwater attack drone.

Since late last month, a mad laboratory for underwater weapons at the country’s^[2] Academy of National Defence Science has been collabing with naval units to initiate trial drone operations in the field. “The Haeil – that’s the craft they want to deploy with certain squadrons in the East Sea Fleet – is a large torpedo-type drone that’s about 13 meters long and 1.5 meters in diameter,” the source said.

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“It’s considered an underwater weapon system capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. But its technical combat specifications, as well as whether it will actually be nuclear-armed, will need to be reviewed during trial operations.”

North Korea has already conducted several tests of the Haeil since 2023 and have described the drone as a weapon which can secretly approach enemy vessels or ports before destroying them with a “radioactive tsunami” produced by an underwater explosion, reports the Daily Star.^[5].

It remains uncertain whether or not the drones are currently actually powerful enough to produce the “super-scale radioactive tsunami” described by Pyongyang.

“While it’s uncertain how effective Haeil would be in actual combat, the authorities regard it as both a strategic ‘ace in the hole’ and a means of infiltrating enemy strongholds to exact nuclear retribution,” the source added. “There’s a general feeling in the military that simply acquiring a weapon that can detonate underwater in key locations represents a show of naval force, which has raised hopes and boosted confidence.”

North Korea is also feared to be building its largest ever warship after the emergence of chilling new satellite imagery earlier this year. Images picked up by Maxar Technologies suggest this could be the isolationist country’s largest and most technologically advanced warship in its fleet, raising concern about the progression and development of North Korea’s potential offensive force.

It comes after a secret military base was uncovered on North Korea’s border with China^[6] which could be home to world-ending missiles. The base, which is in North Pyongan Province^[7], is 17 miles from the Chinese border. The existence of the structure^[8] was exposed by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in a paper published in August.

It’s thought the covert site was built in 2004, but was used as an operational military site around 10 years later. Using a mix of satellite imagery and declassified documents, CSIS was able to expose the site as a military base, which is thought to harbour six to nine warhead-wielding ICBMs.

The site, which is around the size of JFK airport in New York, could also hold launchers and the trucks that have been adapted to transport them. Analysts have warned the site is especially dangerous because there are no launch pads or air-defence systems.

They believe this means the site contains solid-fuel ICBMs which can be launched far more quickly than their counterparts. It means they’re difficult to detect and even harder to carry out a pre-emptive strike.