North Korea’s “mastermind” has shown his power again. Can you imagine that North Korea can already build shield ships?
According to North Korean TV reports, the North Korean leader recently inspected a shipyard. A warship under construction that appeared in the report sparked heated discussions in the outside world.
Because this warship is larger than any previous North Korean ship, it is estimated that its full load displacement has reached 5,000 tons. And from the appearance and design of the ship, this ship is suspected to be a “shield ship”. There is an obvious radar opening at the island position, and the front of the ship also leaves enough deck space for the ship-borne vertical launch device.
It is hard for this information not to attract the attention of the outside world. Although the North Korean Navy has hundreds of surface ships and submarines, most of them are “boats” with a full load displacement of only a few hundred tons or even dozens of tons.
Ships over 1,000 tons are considered “large ships” in the North Korean Navy, and even by this standard, there are less than 10 ships in the entire North Korea that can pass the line.
What’s more, these North Korean “big ships” that have passed the 1,000-ton standard have not been able to cross the 2,000-ton mark. In addition, North Korean domestic ships generally lack reliable radar and other shipborne electronic equipment, and the shipbuilding technology is not very high. As a result, in the past 20 years, although the North Korean Navy has followed the world trend and built catamarans and stealth frigates, they were all short-lived and had little presence.
Therefore, when North Korea suddenly unveiled a “shield ship” designed to have a full load displacement of 5,000 tons, almost no one would directly associate it with North Korea.
The fact that North Korea can build this ship today, even if it is just a shell now, shows that there is an unnamed “expert” helping Pyongyang.
Of course, they said they “do not want to reveal their names”, but considering the current international situation, it seems that this “expert” is no other than Russia.
After all, according to Western open-source intelligence, Russia and North Korea had been conducting a series of in-depth military and technological exchanges long before the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The various new self-propelled artillery, guided rocket launchers, missiles, main battle tanks, anti-aircraft missiles and other advanced weapons and equipment that North Korea has unveiled in recent years are all closely related to “Russian” technology.
Especially missiles. From the exposure of the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile carried by a 22-wheeled TEL vehicle in 2020 to the test launch of the Hwasong-19 intercontinental ballistic missile in 2024, North Korea has successively tested three types of intercontinental ballistic missiles, namely Hwasong-17, 18 and 19, in just four years.
This efficiency is unmatched anywhere in the world, and North Korea’s national strength obviously cannot support them in simultaneously advancing the development of three intercontinental missiles. Therefore, these three missiles are also inseparable from the “experts” behind Pyongyang.
Even the missiles have a strong Russian design that is visible to the naked eye, to the point where even if Putin righteously states that Russia has absolutely no involvement in this matter, Western countries will not believe him.
Let’s talk about North Korea’s own shield ship. It is true that Russia’s surface ship construction capabilities are very poor at this stage. But this poor quality is based on the glorious premise of the Soviet era. Compared with North Korea, Russia’s shipbuilding technology is still unattainable.
Even if it is worse, Russia has its own shipborne active phased array radar and shipborne vertical launch system, and can build a frigate like the 22350 type with a full load displacement of up to 5,400 tons and an “Aegis” radar system. Even if Russia did not directly provide the construction drawings of the 22350 to avoid suspicion, they can also help North Korea design the hull and provide North Korea with vertical launch, radar and other shipborne equipment.
In addition, as North Korea’s military research and development and production capabilities have made significant progress today, Russia may also help North Korea build up the production capacity for these military products, and then sell them back to Russia in the future, just as North Korea provides weapons and ammunition to Russia.
Because from Russia’s commitment to provide North Korea with various technologies and military protection, and in exchange for various military aid materials and combat troops from North Korea, it is not difficult to find that Moscow is likely to want to make North Korea its military cooperation ally, helping it share the pressure in the Far East while providing assistance for its military operations in Europe.
The problem Russia is facing now is that its military production capacity is still slightly insufficient after mobilization, and it must rely on North Korea to fill the remaining gap. However, the military pressure faced by North Korea should not be underestimated, which makes Pyongyang have a clear need to strengthen its own military strength.
The technology and military commitments that Russia provides to North Korea are equivalent to giving North Korea a reassurance, allowing Pyongyang to use its main production capacity to assist Russia, and then use the remaining production capacity to develop “domestic” advanced equipment to give itself psychological comfort.
North Korea’s coastal defense pressure is indeed great, but because their coastal defense system is very incomplete, developing shield ships is actually a strategic mistake.
Under such circumstances, North Korea still did this, which only shows that this Aegis destroyer, like the Kim Jun Ok Hero “tactical nuclear attack submarine” launched last year, is a ship with more political significance than military significance.
North Korea needs a business card to highlight its military construction achievements, and a “shield ship” that far exceeds the North Korean Navy’s current ships is very suitable as a “propaganda ambassador.”
Moreover, Russia’s shipbuilding philosophy has always been to use small ships to carry big missiles, and it pays great attention to the ship’s ability to strike at the ground. North Korea now also has a good missile production capacity. If the new North Korean shield ship can serve as an “arsenal ship” to undertake the strategic deterrence mission against South Korea and Japan, then the strategic value of the ship on the peninsula issue may be higher than that of a “shield ship”.