Name: How North Korea’s New Warship Exposes Fast Shipbuilding Tricks | WSJ
Uploaded: 2025-06-25T14:48:07.000Z
Duration: 6 min 35 s
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This is what a successful side launch of a ship looks like.

And this is Kim Jong-un's brand-new 5,000-ton destroyer.

It capsized after North Korea tried the same launch method.

But what seems like a major setback for North Korea's efforts to modernise its Soviet-era navy offers a rare glimpse into the shadowy relationships between Pyongyang and Moscow.

The botched launch at Chongjin was very embarrassing, but these ships reveal deep technological ties between Russia and North Korea.

Here's how Moscow appears to be helping Pyongyang build warships faster than China.

Recently, North Korea revealed what appeared to be its most sophisticated vessels to date.

The capsized Chae Hyun-class warship that was put upright by June and the first Chae Hyun destroyer successfully launched in April.

It would be impossible for North Korea to build a ship this quickly without outside assistance.

Mike Plunkett is a naval analyst with defence intelligence company Janes.

On the surface of it, these ships are very impressive.

They are modern, they have a wide range of capabilities, but there are a few hints that they may not be everything that they appear to be.

Certain elements in the design of North Korea's new warships indicate a high level of Russian involvement, especially when compared to Russia's own Grigorovich-class frigates.

The stern here, they have the same basic squared-off shape in both classes.

The profile of the foredeck and the bow is the same or very similar on both.

Images of the Chae Hyun destroyer launched in April also bear a strong resemblance to the Russian warship.

The real giveaway is this chine that runs the length of the hull from bow to stern.

This is a line marking where the slope of the hull changes direction.

Even design variations indicate how closely Russia appears to be involved in the development of the new vessels.

One difference that we do see between the two ships is that the bow on the North Korean ship is considerably sharper in its rake, its steeper angle than the Russian.

That is because the Russian frigate is approximately 410 feet long, which is about 65 feet shorter than North Korea's warship.

They need the extra length because they have packed significantly more weaponry, more missile systems into this hull than is present in the original Grigorovich.

You would need Russian assistance in doing this because it's a Russian design, so they are familiar with the strengths and the weaknesses of the hull, where it would be safest and strongest to insert that additional length and how it could be done as quickly and safely as possible.

The tech ties between Russia and North Korea go beyond designs alone, as Moscow seems to have supplied Pyongyang with the Pantsir-M, a Russian-only short-range anti-missile air defence system.

This is the first time this system has been seen on a warship other than in the Russian Navy.

So this is clearly a direct export from Russia to North Korea to arm this particular warship.

Kim Jong-un has long dreamed of modernising his outdated navy.

And in 2023, he visited the headquarters of the Russian Pacific Fleet.

At the time it was billed as sort of a friendship meeting with Kim Jong-un being shown around the Russian naval facilities and shown how powerful the Russian Pacific Fleet was.

I suspect it was actually a sales pitch as much as anything.

He was being shown naval technology that the Russians could offer or were in the process of handing over to the North Koreans.

In April 2025, a year and a half later, Kim revealed North Korea's first destroyer.

Pyongyang said it took roughly 400 days to build.

For warships of this size, the North Koreans have built it even faster than the Chinese would.

China typically takes 18 months to build and launch a similar class of warship.

A US Arleigh Burke-class destroyer will need about two years, while Russia can take up to 11 years to build a frigate.

So for North Korea to build two of these within around a year is extremely fast, causing some experts to wonder whether these are actually completed ships.

There are a few things in these images that point to the possibility that these ships don't actually have any engines fitted.

So firstly, there are a series of vents in the funnel which are used to take in air for cooling the engine and other machinery deep inside the ship.

We can see in this image that all these vents, they're all blanked off with metal plates.

They are not taking in any air for anything.

At the moment, we've only seen it moving around with the assistance of tugs.

We've not seen it moving under its own power.

The other clue is that the waterline, which is where the water is supposed to be, when the ship is normally loaded, it is a long way above the water, which indicates that the ship is very lightly loaded.

Now, again, that may not be particularly surprising because she won't have any fuel on board.

She won't have any provisions, any water, any significant amounts of weaponry.

But it is still a very, very long way up, which suggests there's a large amount of mass missing.

The Choi-Hyung warships serve as a powerful propaganda tool for Kim.

Shortly after launching the first destroyer, North Korea also demonstrated its ability to fire missiles from the ship.

We know the Choi-Hyung can fire its guns.

Whether it's capable of a meaningful operational engagement is questionable.

Whether it's capable of moving anywhere under its own power is questionable.

But even if there are no engines in North Korea's newest warships, the possibility that they could carry and launch nuclear weapons is a threatening development.

If more modern platforms are starting to enter North Korean service, then it complicates the South Korean calculus on how they deal with the North Korean navy and provides North Korea with more options for striking at South Korea or US bases in the region.