North Korea's Sea-Based WMD Capability

The Second Leg of the Nuclear Triad

North Korea's Sea-Based WMD Capability cover

Description

Utilizing the first-ever linguistic analysis of North Korean nuclear doctrine, this definitive study of North Korea's nuclear ballistic submarine and missile programs fills in important information and intelligence gaps regarding the nation's nuclear capabilities.

North Korea's ongoing development of submarine forces and sea-based ballistic missile capabilities indicates that the country is striving to achieve the second leg of the nuclear triad. If successful, this will present a new national security challenge to the United States by enabling North Korea to boast a survivable nuclear weapons force. This book offers the most definitive study of North Korea's ballistic missile submarine (SSB), submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), and submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM) programs, filling in important information and intelligence gaps regarding these capabilities, their origins, and sources of technology, as well as the current stage of these programs. This study investigates the strategic doctrine surrounding these programs by employing the first-ever data-scraping linguistic text analysis experiment of 26 years of North Korean statements and documents about their nuclear programs.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Note on the Korean Text
Glossary of Acronyms and Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: A Bad Omen Whose Time Has Come
1. Early Interest in Sea-Based Ballistic Missiles
2. Research, Development, Test, and Production Infrastructure
3. The Submarines
4. The Missiles
5. Nuclear Command and Control, Strategies, and Basing
6. Deciphering North Korea's Nuclear Doctrine
Appendix A: Reported Missile Characteristics (as of May 2024)
Appendix B: Examples of Training Set Sentences
Appendix C: Note on Text Analysis Experiment
Index
About the Authors
About CSIS

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 26 Jun 2025
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Extent 312
ISBN 9798765198346
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Series CSIS Reports
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Joseph S. Bermudez

Joseph S. Bermudez, Jr. is an internationally reco…

Author

Ellen Kim

Ellen Kim is deputy director of the Korea Chair of…

Author

Victor D. Cha

Victor D. Cha is president of the Geopolitics and…

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