North Korea tests a new “high-speed” torpedo – when the Navy is to receive it

North Korea announced on Tuesday, November 10 that it tested a new “high-speed” torpedo weapon system in the Sea of Japan, which the two Koreas call the East Sea. The test took place on Monday, November 9, and the system, according to the official KCNA agency, will enter the country’s Navy in early 2027.

The test was carried out jointly by three North Korean defence research bodies: the Academy of Defence Science, the Missile Administration and the Torpedo Weapons Research Institute. The aim, according to the announcement, was to verify the new system’s combat effectiveness. Pyongyang presented the firing as part of the “mandatory activities” of the research institutes, whose mission is to raise weapons technology to a “high level of development.”

An official of South Korea’s Unification Ministry told reporters that the test appears aimed at demonstrating progress in the North’s naval and underwater weapons capabilities. He noted that it came just 25 days after the previous torpedo test and that further analysis is needed on the weapon’s real capabilities.

The second torpedo within a month

On October 15 North Korea had tested the high-speed, high-precision “Zam-2.0” torpedo, which it said has improved propulsion with a rocket motor, the result, according to it, of more than 180 tests over five years. The same month it fired two types of strategic cruise missiles, probably from the 3,000-tonne submarine “Hero Kim Kun Ok,” and recently it continued with a series of tests, from a cluster warhead on a cruise missile to a new air-defence system in a strike drill against a mock airfield. This year two 5,000-tonne destroyers entered service, the “Choe Hyon” in June and the “Kang Kon” in September.

The unusually specific timetable, South Korean experts told the Korea Herald, suggests the weapon may have moved beyond the experimental stage and is approaching final operational evaluation. Professor Lim Eul Chul of Kyungnam University believes high-speed torpedoes aim to keep US carrier strike groups and nuclear-powered submarines from approaching the peninsula in joint exercises with Seoul. He said they would pose a serious threat to South Korean destroyers and frigates because they are hard to counter. Yang Moo Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, estimates that deployment in early 2027 may mean mass production and Navy induction will proceed in parallel.