<p >North Korea has demonstrated an advanced cruise missile strike capability from its submarines, with missiles fired from underwater travelling over 1,500 kilometres in elliptical and figure-eight flight paths, and hitting their targets. The country made its first submarine cruise missile launch in March 2023, and made its first test launch of the new Pulhwasal-3-31 strategic cruise missile on January 24, 2024, with the recent test thought to be of the same system. This followed the unveiling of the new Hwasal-1 and Hwasal-2 strategic cruise missiles in prior years, which are deployed from ground based launchers. While North Korea’s deterrence capabilities have long relied on its&nbsp;<a href=" >ballistic missile arsenal</a>, which began to be fielded in the late 1970s and has continued to make major landmark improvements, a significant complementary cruise missile arsenal began to be fielded from the late 2010s, with missiles demonstrating sophisticated features such as the ability to conduct complex waypoint manoeuvres.</p><p ><img src=" title="North Korean Hwasal-1/2 Cruise Missile Launch"></p><p > </p><p >North Korean cruise missiles have been designed for a wide range of roles including nuclear strikes, conventional precision strikes and anti-shipping.&nbsp;Following <a href=" target="_blank">large scale exports</a> of rocket artillery, long range anti tank missile, and ballistic missile systems to Russia, it has been speculated that advanced in North Korea’s cruise missile programs, and expanded production of tested designs, could pave the way for exports of these assets as well. With North Korea fielding the world’s largest submarine fleet of over 70 ships, and having a significant domestic submarine industry, integrating cruise missiles provides an attractive alternative to ballistic missiles, as while taking less space onboard ships, subsonic cruise missiles can travel significantly further. Enhanced cooperation with Russia has been speculated to potentially pave the way to North Korea gaining technology transfers to boost its submarine program, allowing it to field new generations of more capable cruise missile submarines.&nbsp;</p>