North Korea shows a warship larger than its new destroyers taking shape at Nampho

North Korean state media on 4 November released photos of leader Kim Jong-un inspecting a new warship under construction at the Nampho Shipyard on the country's west coast. South Korean analysts said the images appeared to be the first public view of a vessel believed to be a 10,000-ton cruiser. According to the Korean Central News Agency, the visit took place on 2 November.

The official agency claimed that Kim expressed great satisfaction with the ship and described it as incomparably larger than the destroyer built last year. It said the vessel was designed to carry out complex missions suited to modern warfare, while the party newspaper Rodong Sinmun claimed it would have combat capabilities that no other country possesses. State media released no specifications.

According to the same reports, Kim said that rapidly strengthening surface and underwater forces was a vital requirement of the times, citing the regional security environment and what he described as hostile acts by enemies. He was also reported as saying that a modern shipbuilding base was essential for a navy that no one could provoke.

Kim was briefed on upgrades at the yard and ordered further work, the state media accounts said. He called for an intelligent production system that manages the whole shipbuilding process and raises automation, a second ground dock so that ships can be built and repaired at the same time, and changes to what he called the irrational layout of the yard's buildings.

Shin Jong-woo, secretary-general of the Seoul-based Korea Defense and Security Forum, compared the new images with photos of a 5,000-ton destroyer under construction at Nampho released in March last year. He said the yard appeared to be showing a 10,000-ton cruiser build for the first time, and assessed that the ship would carry a larger load of cruise missiles for longer-range strikes against targets at sea and on land.

One of the five published photos showed men standing beneath part of the lower hull, which rested on bilge blocks taller than they were. The Maeil Business Newspaper reported that a red structure visible in the images is believed to be a sonar mounting, and that the size and shape of the supports differ from those used for the earlier destroyers.

The visit follows Kim's call, at the 23 June commissioning of the 5,000-ton destroyer Choe Hyon, for North Korea to build two warships a year of that class or larger, including 10,000-ton vessels. The Choe Hyon joined the West Sea Fleet, and a sister ship, the Kang Kon, was commissioned into the East Sea Fleet in September, when Pyongyang described it as part of its nuclear counteraction system. CNA reported that a third ship of the class is under construction under a five-year defence plan.

Satellite images published in October indicated that the Nampho yard was undergoing a major expansion, CNA noted. North Korea has also been testing naval missiles this year, including anti-warship missiles in April and a strategic cruise missile and anti-ship systems aboard a destroyer in July. A larger hull able to carry more cruise missiles would add to those capabilities if the analysts' assessment proves correct.