North Korea's navy integral to sea border security

The North Korean Navy is part of the Korean People’s Army Naval Force and makes up the country’s maritime defense capability. Because the navy is primarily concerned with defense, it operates as a ‘green water’ rather than a ‘blue water’ navy, which means it is capable of carrying out missions and activities offshore but not at extended ranges such as the Chinese Navy, which is much larger and includes air craft carriers, battle ships and destroyers.

The North Korean Navy is made up of around 770 ships and boats which are divided between the western fleet (300 ships) and eastern fleet (470 ships). On each coastline of North Korea there are a number of naval bases that provide various functions from supporting patrol craft to providing support capability of larger vessels such as the frigates and corvettes of the navy.

The three major naval bases (one on the west coast and two on the east coast) are Haeju, which has a ship repair yard on the west coast and Wonsan and Rason on the east coast. Wonsan is the Head Quarters of the East Fleet while Rason is a major training and operations centre. The Genera; Head Quarters for the entire navy is, of course, in Pyongyang.

Unlike many sizeable navies in the world which rely on foreign countries for shipbuilding activities, North Korea builds many of its vessels, both large and small. All nine of the frigates and corvettes that are currently active in the navy originated from North Korea, although they are based on the general design and specifications of ships in the Chinese and Russian navies.

The submerines in the North Korean Navy are many; there are 60 submarines in operation and 32 of them, the coastal midget submarines, were built in North Korea. These submarines are fairly small by modern-day standards with a submerged displacement of 370 tons and a length of 34 meters. They are powered by a diesel-electric engine and carry a crew compliment of 15. The largest submarines in the fleet are the Whiskey Class submersibles with a crew of 54 and a length of 74 meters. They are also diesel-electric and were purchased by North Korea from the USSR in the 1980s and early 90s.

The age of these class of submarines make them unsustainable for defense purposes and the North Korean Navy reportedly has plans to phase them out of service according to North Korean news reports. There are another 22 submarines of the Ming-Class purchased from China but assembled in North Korea, these submarines are of a similar size and capability as the Whiskey-Class subs.

There are 3 frigates and 6 corvettes in the North Korean Nazy, all of them built in the country while a proposed tenth ship, the hull of which was purchased from Russia in 2003, is reported to be in Nampo Harbor where a shipyard is located. It is rumored that the navy intends to restore the weapons systems to this ship and bring it back into service as the flagship of the North Korean Navy. It is a Burevestnik class frigate and is 127 meters long and displaces 3,575 tons at full load and will contain anti-submarine weapons, missiles, 76mm guns and a crew compliment of 200.

Although the North Korean Navy is fairly aged, it is a demonstration of the ability of North Korea to build its own ships for operation in its defense force. The navy has for several decades played an important part in the defense capacity of the country and has taken part in a number of noteworthy battles and skirmishes such as the Battle of Chumonchin Chan and the second battle of Yeonpyeong, the latter of which called upon the North Korean Navy to protect the integrity of the country’s sea borders.