North Korea releases visuals of large under-construction warship

North Korea has for the first time released visuals of a previously unseen frigate-sized warship that it is building at Nampo Shipyard.

Visuals of the warship were released in a programme aired by state broadcaster Korean Central Television (KCTV) on 29 December, implicitly acknowledging the existence of the vessel that either is or similar to a vessel that was seen previously in satellite images.

Citing commercially available and open-source satellite images, Janes reported in November 2024 that Nampo Shipyard has begun assembly of what will be the country's largest surface combatant.

Images of the warship's flat sections began appearing in March 2024, and by May that year, Nampo Shipyard began constructing pillars for what would eventually be a structure to conceal the build project.

Based on the dimensions of completed block assemblies, Janes estimated then that the warship will have an overall beam of about 15 m, putting the estimated overall length of the vessel at between 110 and 130 m.

The visuals that were released by KCTV on 29 December seem to corroborate these estimates and further reveal that the warship has been designed with reduced radar cross-sections that are similar to those found on Chinese warships.

This suggests that Nampo Shipyard may have received assistance from Chinese shipyards for this project.

Furthermore, the visuals indicate that the vessel's superstructure has been designed to accommodate phased-array panels for a multifunction radar system for searching, detecting, and tracking air and surface targets.

Given the accommodation for such a targeting capability, the warship will likely be armed with anti-air and anti-surface missile capabilities, and these weapons will likely be deployed in vertical launching system (VLS) cells.