By Starrys Obazei | January 30, 2023
starrys@ddnewsonline.com
It has been confirmed numerically that North Koreans have by far the largest Navy in the world. Yes, North Korea has 967 vessels according to this story, although other sources place them at around 780 and they have around 60,000 personnel. This is an absolutely massive number of ships, however, it doesn’t tell the full story, Quora reports.
It has also been confirmed that the vast majority of ships in the North Korean Navy are mostly of Soviet or Chinese origin and were from the Cold War. They tend to be derelict and old, and often in poor condition.
A good example of this is that naval vessels built on either side of the peninsula are stuck there indefinitely (primarily because of South Korea but even if they were able to travel without interruption, they still likely wouldn’t be able to make the journey without breaking).
The majority of their navy is made up of gunboats and submarines, both of which are generally easier and cheaper to maintain than larger ships such as destroyers, corvettes, and frigates.
The North Korean navy is actually massive, simply because of the sheer number of vessels that they have.
However, their vessels are very old and most of them are smaller and easier to maintain. Their navy may look impressive, and it can be a threat, but it pales in comparison to the navies of other nations.