Recent satellite images collected by independent services Maxar Technologies and Planet Labs suggest that North Korea would be building on the Nampo construction site, on the western coast of the country, the larger war ship ever passed in the Arsenals of North Korea. To give the news was the American Think Tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) within the Beyond Parallel project. Based on the satellite images collected by Maxar Technologies, analysts hypothesize that Pyongyang is creating a missile frigate of at least 140 meters in length.
The images of the alleged war ship in the port of Nampo in North Korea
The Satellite images of April 6, 2025 were taken during the overflow of the naval site of the North Korean Navy a Nampoport city overlooking the Bay of Korea and at the mouth of the Taedong river, 50 kilometers south-west of the capital Pyongyang. The ship under construction is located inside a 120 -meter -long floating coating basin, covered with camouflage covers to limit visibility from above as much as possible. From the analysis of the photographs, however, you can see that the basin is equipped with two tower cranes and with the machinery necessary for the preparation of a ship, including military. The length of the ship and its shape made it assumed to the experts that it is the same that the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-a visited in early March 2025.
Avant -garde missile technology
As CSIS analysts Joseph Bermudez Jr. and Jennifer Jun wrote, the hypothetical missile frigate It would already be in the set -up phase, i.e. the moment when the works are completed inside the ship and the armaments installed. Its armament technology would represent, in addition to the size, the real turning point for the North Korean Navy. The frigate could in fact be able to transport vertical launchers (VLS)which (simplifying) are a system of pipes capable of containing and launching missiles. A novelty for North Korea, which in a few years would therefore be able to have war ships capable of shooting antinave missiles, terrestrial attack or surface-air. The Celle VLS are a technology supplied to the most modern military marines.
An obsolete fleet
It should still be clarified if the unit being completed is one of the two Fregate Portaelicotteri (FFH) of which North Korea declared the construction to the international maritime organization (IMO) in 2023 This modernization effort aims to “rejuvenate” a fleet that focuses more on numbers than on technology: according to a Report of 2021 of the Defense Intelligence Agency Of the United States, the North Korea Navy has a staff of 60,000 men, about 400 patrol ships, 260 landing vehicles, 70 submarines with diesel nutrition and about twenty posamine ships. But to support a real naval clash, it could only count on 2 najin class frigates, dating back to the seventies and now obsolete. This is why it is known that Pyongyang is also working on the construction of his First nuclear propulsion submarinethanks to the fundamental Russian technological assistanceand to the twin of the missile frigate under construction in Nampo.
The opinion of the experts
Despite this technological leap, many experts point out that as far as to keep under control, the offensive ability on the seas of North Korea will still be very reduced even after the launch of the new war ships now in the pipeline. On this point the South Korean parliamentarian Kim Byung-Kee (Member of the Commission for the Intelligence of the National Assembly) who said in an interview with the CNN: «Making a military war ship of this dimensions requires a significant budget. They don’t just have to build a ship, but also create a team that can manage it, and there are costs to keep it in operation, including those for equipment and fuel. In addition, a large war ship cannot go out alone in the open sea. So the question is: the Can North Korea afford these costs? ».
