laststandonzombieisland

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stands on the conning tower of a Romeo-class submarine during his inspection of the Korean People’s Army Naval Unit 167 in this undated photo released June 16, 2014.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un led a drill and taught the captain of a submarine how to navigate as he visited a navy unit, it has been reported.

The dictator visited the North Korean Navy Unit 167, where he reportedly spoke of the importance of the country’s submarine units.

Pictures released by the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of North Korea’s ruling Workers Party, show the great leader riding on top of the submarine as it remained above water and being shown around the inside of the vessel. (You wouldn’t want to risk submerging this rusty Cold War relic, it may be for the last time!)

The vessel is identified as “Submarine No. 748 of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) naval unit 167″

Which is undoubtedly supposed to make one ask, “Where are the other 747 subs at?”

Well, the DPRK only has a handful of these, no matter what the title of the ship.

The Project 633 (NATO codename ROMEO) class, a 251-foot, 1800-ton diesel boat, basically uses German 1945-era technology. These boats were designed in the Soviet Union in the 1950s borrowing from lessons learned in their Whiskey class submarine, which in turn were simply reverse-engineered late-model Nazi U-boats captured at the end of World War Two. Some 133 Romeos were produced, mainly for the Soviet Navy, with almost all of these retired in the 1980s and 90s.

North Korea, however, still operates as many as 22 modified Romeo class submarines made by their only ally, China, who had obtained a few new from Moscow and, after the Nixon-era split, reverse-engineered the design to make more of them. Seven were directly imported to North Korea from China between 1973 and 1975, and the remainder locally assembled with Chinese supplied parts between 1976 and 1995. One apparently sank in an accident in 1985. Four Chinese imported units are based on the western coast.

These boats use Chinese-made sonars, batteries, electronic warfare systems, and radars and carry 14 × 533mm (21in) Yu-4 (1970’s vintage acoustic homing) or even more primitive Yu-1 (unguided steam) torpedoes, or 28 mines. Speed when knew was about 15-knots. They are known to South Korean, Japanese, and US ASW forces as being rather noisy boats.

The North Korean vessel is a “basic” model with “virtually no anti-submarine performance,” says IHS Jane’s Fighting Ships. I mean think about it, they are a locally made version of a ship made by twice reverse engineering first German, then Russian designs, by Chinese naval architects and assembled under literal slave-labor in a country stuck in 1951.

But at least they now know how to navigate at sea, after some pointers from the most illuminated and fearless leader.

Eagerly awaiting instruction in the finer points of submarine navigation from the ray of light.