South Korea - third submarine launched

On 27 September, the South Korean Navy Commander, Admiral Boo Suk-jong, christened and launched the third and final submarine of the first batch of the air-independent CHANGBOBO III class at the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in Ulsan under the name SHIN CHAE-HO.

These Submarines are a South Korean development and are built to almost 80% from their own production parts, displace around 3,000 tonnes and have an endurance of 20 days under water with a crew of 50. These boats are not only SLBM-capable (submarine-launched ballistic missiles) - the type boat DOSAN AHN CHANG-HO successfully conducted an underwater test firing of a variant of the Hyunmoo-2B missile from one of its six vertical silos at a target 400 kilometres away (800 km range) as recently as mid-September.

This makes South Korea the seventh nation, alongside the USA, Russia, China, the UK, France and India, to have underwater launch capabilities for ballistic missiles. North Korea also claims the same for itself, although it can currently still be assumed that the underwater missile launch there a year ago was only carried out from a submerged pontoon. However, South Korea continues to constitutionally renounce nuclear armament - the only one of the above-mentioned nations to do so.

While AHN MU, the second Submarine class is scheduled to be handed over to the Navy as early as next year after its launch at the end of 2020, the delivery of the third Submarine not scheduled until 2024. However, Seoul is already planning to launch a second batch of two more CHANGBOBO-IIIs in 2023, followed by a new class of six units "boosted" to 4,000 tonnes and ten launch silos. In this context, the South Korean defence agency pointed to further independent developments - a supersonic cruise missile and a ballistic missile with a significantly greater load-bearing capacity. Made in South Corea.

Incidentally, the South Korean SLBN test firing took place almost simultaneously with the launch of two North Korean short-range missiles from a train. And just in time for the launch, the North fired another ballistic missile in the direction of the East Sea. Made in North Corea.

But an arms race is the wrong way to go, so we have to talk to each other! We could, because, surprisingly, both sides, the South (including the USA) and the North, are now offering this possibility. Only North Korea is not responding through the channels intended for this purpose.