The 1950-53 Korean war ended in an armistice instead of a formal peace declaration, or technically the United Nations forces led by the US are at war with the North. The recent stalemate in the nuclear negotiations with North Korea have further exposed the frustrations within the US administration in dealing with the one-party state led by a dynastic totalitarian dictatorship of Kim Jong-un.

Since the end of the Korean War in July 1953, skirmishes and covert infiltration attempts between the two countries – mostly along the de facto maritime border known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL) – have not been uncommon. However, both countries understand that a full-scale renewal of hostilities would be disastrous for both Koreas – a risk that the more developed and wealthy ROK has attempted to deter through its continued mutual defence treaty with the United States and considerable military investment of its own.
The ramping-up of the DPRK’s nuclear weapons programme and simultaneous development of a submarine launched ballistic missile capability has only served to exacerbate tensions on the peninsula. It also impacts the complex and often delicate web of geopolitical and economic relations that exist between the other main regional players, notably North Korea’s benefactor, China; South Korea’s main ally, the United States; and Japan.

Sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan on the night of 26 March 2010 by what South Korea claimed was a surprise torpedo attack from a North Korean midget submarine provided a stark reminder of the fragile state of peace that exists between the two Koreas. The heavily militarised Korean peninsula – with the unpredictable and isolated communist ruled Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the north and the economically prosperous Republic of Korea (ROK) in the south – remains an active ‘hotspot’.

The North Korean Navy operates a fleet of over 70 submarines of various kinds mostly with obsolete or old technology (twenty Romeo-class submarines, forty Sang-O ‘Shark’) class coastal submarines (SSCs) and ten midget submarines of the Yono class). Given the vintage and technologies used, the reliability of much of this large fleet is suspect. However, there are newer types including a handful armed with one or more ballistic missiles which are being rapidly developed which could be the serious North Korean Submarine threat.