Russia’s Poseidon, a precedent for the underwater nuclear drone announced by North Korea

Kim Jong-un poses smiling in a picture distributed by North Korean propaganda. On one side of the photo is obviously a missile, a “Underwater Strategic Nuclear Weapons” tested off the coast of Riwon, in the southern province of Hamgyong, which reached the waters of Hongwon Bay, 116 kilometers away, and was designed to “covertly infiltrate operational areas and create a large-scale radioactive tsunami”.

It sounds like a James Bond movie script, but the danger is real and not that new. It has its precedent in Russian Poseidon, already available to Putin’s navy. These are unmanned aerial vehicles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, capable of navigating intercontinental distances at great depths and reaching speeds greater than the speed of a ship or a conventional torpedo in its movement. In its variant as a nuclear torpedo, the great prey of Poseidon would be the coastal cities and enemy fleets thanks to the fact that it can carry a nuclear warhead silently.

“They are very quiet, have great maneuverability and are practically indestructible,” Putin boasted about Poseidon when he presented this project in his address to the nation on March 1, 2018. They were designed “to overwhelm America’s coastal cities with a radioactive tsunami”, said in November 2020, then US Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-Proliferation Christopher Ford. they give them nicknames “Torpedoes of the Apocalypse”.

It is a weapon that is of great concern to NATO. It is intended to overcome a hypothetical first nuclear exchange launched against Russia and hit the enemy in retaliation in a second or third round of attack. The Kremlin’s underwater drones, for now, they can only be transported in one state-of-the-art nuclear submarine, the K-329 Belgorodredesigned for this purpose.

It is unknown where the North Korean nuclear drone was launched from; what is known is that sailed at a depth between 80 and 150 meters in the waters of the Sea of ​​Japanknown in Korea as the East Sea, 59 hours and 12 minutesit is stated in the press release of the state agency KCNA, as reported by Europa Press.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un oversaw the launch with “great pleasure”. Allegedly, it already has a weapon of great terrifying power and possibly devastating effects.