Satellite Images May Show North Korea’s Biggest Warship Ever

North Korea may be building its largest warship to date, new satellite imagery shows, after Pyongyang pledged to invest heavily in its navy as part of a wide-ranging military buildup.

Why It Matters

North Korea has forged ahead with myriad military programs, including bolstering its naval power, and has pressed for rapid upgrades to its shipyards.

Pyongyang last month unveiled construction on a nuclear-powered submarine, and has for many months conducted a raft of missile tests—including intercontinental ballistic weapons—watched with apprehension by the U.S., Japan and South Korea and experts suspicious of Russian assistance for North Korea’s weapons programs.

Pyongyang has adopted an increasingly belligerent tone toward South Korea, its neighbor on the peninsula, and doubled down on anti-Washington rhetoric.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year, in a departure from long-held policy, rejected reunification with the South and cast it as the “principal enemy.”

What To Know

Satellite imagery from April 6 likely show weapons construction of a guided-missile frigate roughly 140 meters long at North Korea’s Nampho shipyard, Joseph Bermudez Jr. and Jennifer Jun at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said in an analysis published on the think tank’s Beyond Parallel website earlier this month.

The shots were taken by global earth imaging companies Maxar Technologies and Planet Labs.

The Nampho facility sits southwest of the secretive country’s capital, Pyongyang. It is North Korea’s main shipbuilding and repair site, as well as its largest commercial port, according to the 38 North project, which focuses North Korea and is run by the Washington D.C.-based Stimson Center nonprofit.

A frigate is a type of warship, often smaller than vessels like destroyers, but typically larger than corvettes.

At 140 meters, this vessel would be “the largest warship manufactured in North Korea,” the CSIS analysts said, adding it could be a ship Kim visited last month.

North Korean state media carried reports in early March that Kim had toured several of the country’s shipyards accompanied by a handful of senior officials.

Pyongyang is “radically bolstering up the navy’s combat power,” state media cited Kim as saying. This included the country’s fleet of surface vessels.

Kim also “learned about the building of a nuclear-powered, strategic guided-missile submarine,” state media reported.

Joseph Dempsey, a research associate with the U.K.-based International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank, said in October 2024 that satellite imagery of the Nampho shipyard showed Pyongyang was trying to hide the construction of what “could be North Korea’s largest surface combatant to date.”

Satellite imagery indicated pillars, screens and a mesh roof appearing at Nampho, likely to “provide a greater degree of cover both from prying eyes on the ground and sensors from far above,” Dempsey said.

The 38 North project said in November that previously-glimpsed work at Nampho was “part of a much larger project that will significantly upgrade the facility.”

Kim visited Nampho last month, where employees are “pushing ahead with the work for modernizing production lines and expanding their production capacity,” state media reported.

“If North Korea equips the new frigate with the hypersonic ballistic missile it claimed to have successfully tested in January, that will cause a game-changing impact in the regional security,” Kim Duk-ki, a retired South Korean admiral, told CNN.

Pyongyang said in January it had tested a hypersonic, intermediate-range missile to “reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region.”

Hypersonic speeds are defined as exceeding five times the speed of sound—Mach 5 or higher.

What People Are Saying

Joseph Dempsey, a research associate with the U.K.-based International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank, said in the fall of 2024: “Beyond the perceived prestige and propaganda value, it is unclear why Pyongyang would benefit from investment in larger warships.”

The 38 North project said in November: “Work on Nampho’s shipbuilding facilities, together with the recent reveal of a new naval base being built on the east coast, appear to be part of larger efforts to upgrade the Korean People’s Navy.”

What Happens Next

Construction will likely continue at the Nampho site in the coming months.