![]() The remainder of North Korea’s submarine fleet is comprised of a mix of coastal and mini-submarines, including roughly 40 Sang-O- and Sang-0 II-class coastal submarines and approximately 20 Yugo- and Yono-class mini-submarines. The fleet is comprised primarily of aging vessels, however, and is made up of a combination of conventional attack submarines, coastal submarines, mini-subs, and an emerging ballistic missile submarine capability. The DPRK’s submarine fleet – like the KPA as a whole – is large, with top-end estimates placing the total fleet at over 80 vessels, while other estimates gauge its total strength to be closer to 70 boats. ![]() North Korea’s submarine fleet reflects both the overriding dynamic of the KPA as well as its asymmetric focus. This strategic logic has contributed to North Korea’s decision to pursue its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, as well as to its focus on such capabilities as special operations forces and cyber tools. This type of strategic thinking is not new for North Korea, with a similar approach to defense modernization having existed since the early 1960s when North Korea promulgated a new defense policy known as the Four-Point Military Guidelines, which included an emphasis on military capabilities that provided the greatest strategic benefit at the lowest possible cost in keeping with the country’s financial and resource constraints. Department of Defense assessing that the DPRK focuses its efforts on areas where it believes it may have the potential for some comparative advantage over its rivals. To overcome this qualitative inferiority, North Korea has prioritized the pursuit of asymmetric military capabilities, with the U.S. This advantage in overall capacity is marred by a qualitative deficiency when compared to both the South Korean and American militaries, however, with the KPA fielding largely outdated equipment whose capability is lacking in comparison to the equipment fielded by the more modern militaries of its adversaries. The KPA is large, with nearly 1.3 million active-duty soldiers currently underarms, and boasts an advantage in numbers in some important areas over its Southern counterpart, including in artillery pieces, multiple rocket launchers (MRLs), and tanks. North Korea’s Korean Peoples’ Army (KPA) is characterized largely by a quantity over quality dynamic. As a subset of the larger submarine fleet, North Korea’s many coastal and mini-submarines, in particular, stand out as intriguing encapsulations of some of the North Korean military’s important characteristics. North Korea’s submarine fleet – one of the world’s largest – personifies some of the defining features of the North Korean military as a whole.
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