North Korea appears to be preparing for an underwater military exercise involving a large submarine that can carry a ballistic missile.

The North Korea-specialized Web site, 38 North, said on Monday that steady work is being carried out on what appears to be a project to build a submarine that is bigger than a Sinpo or Gorae-class.

Chief analytics officer for AllSource Analysis Joseph Bermudez raised the assessment using commercial satellite imagery taken of North’s Sinpo South Shipyard in North Hamgyong Province on December ninth.  

Bermudez said the imagery indicated the Gorae-class, or Sinpo-class experimental ballistic missile submarine was docking at the port without the netting that had previously covered it.

He said there was also a submersible test barge southwest of the submarine, but small boats used to move them were not detected. He said it likely means that the submarine already conducted some sort of training underwater or was preparing for it in the near future.

Bermudez also said that the rail-mounted gantry cranes and transfer table at a nearby construction parts storage yard continued to be repositioned over the past four months, suggesting that a shipbuilding program has begun.

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