North Korea has tested a “new-type” precision-guided torpedo system that uses artificial intelligence for target detection and guidance, state media reported Saturday, as the nuclear-armed country steps up weapons testing.
The announcement came days after Pyongyang said it had test-fired two types of cruise missiles from a submarine after weeks of friction with Seoul over a landmine explosion along their border.
Analysts say North Korea could be rapidly advancing its missile and weapons technology with support from Russia received in exchange for sending troops to support its war against Ukraine.
The underwater test-fire of the “super-speed” Zam-2.0 torpedo system took place on Thursday “to confirm the successful technical updating” of the weapon, the Korean Central News Agency said.
“AI technology was applied to the target detection and the guidance function of the new-type super-speed precisely guided torpedo,” KCNA said.
The test proved “the core technology for raising the efficiency of propulsion and the performance of rocket propulsion device”, it said, adding it had completed “more than 180 rounds of different tests over the past five years”.
Earlier this month, North Korea announced the AI-assisted launch of an intermediate-range hypersonic missile.
Pyongyang said at the time there was “no way to avoid” the hypersonic missile, which was “capable of changing its flight orbit at a low altitude”.
Torpedoes are designed to strike enemy targets underwater at high speed, but the stated introduction of AI could also allow North Korea to carry out evasive manoeuvres and make autonomous decisions to confuse an adversary, analysts say.
“South Korea and the United States deploy decoy targets to divert torpedoes, but AI could potentially help distinguish real targets from decoys,” Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University, told AFP.
“From torpedoes to submarine-launched weapons, Pyongyang is pouring resources into demonstrating that US strategic assets can be rendered ineffective.”
In September, Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong Un emphasised the need to raise “the level of artificial intelligence” in the country’s weapons systems.
Saturday’s announcement came as the two Koreas appear to be intensifying an arms race over hypersonic missiles.
Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound and can manoeuvre mid-flight, making them significantly harder to track and intercept.
Days after North Korea announced it had tested its AI-assisted intermediate-range hypersonic missile, Seoul test-fired its own weapon — a hypersonic glide vehicle it called a “key strategic asset capable of changing the course of the battlefield”.
North Korea this week cast doubt on Seoul’s test, saying it may have “failed to achieve hypersonic flight”, a claim South Korea rejected a day later.
The latest weapons tests come amid growing speculation over a possible meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim, as world leaders prepare to gather for November’s APEC summit in China.
After several overtures met with silence from Pyongyang, Trump said again this week he “may” meet North Korean leader Kim during his Asia tour next month.
Ahead of a possible North Korea-US summit, Pyongyang appears to be “playing down South Korea’s hypersonic missile programme to portray itself as ahead of Seoul — Washington’s ally — in the arms race”, Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.
But North Korea may need more time to advance its torpedo system, particularly in reducing the noise it generates underwater, he said.
“At high speeds underwater, a torpedo generates significant noise, making it easier to detect,” Yang said.
“Reducing that noise is a major technical challenge requiring advanced technology — and North Korea does not yet appear to have reached that level.”
