The DPRK Navy is by definition a 'brown water' navy, but it has maintained a strictly limited and intermittent 'green water' capability, primarily in the form of light frigates. However, obsolescence and budget pressures associated with fleet modernization may have contributed to the sideling of so many hulls. In sharp contrast, most of the service's larger assets such as the two or three Sariwan class corvettes and TAECHONE Ⅰ/Ⅱ large patrol craft appear operational in a ready status. Now, a growing inventory of cruise missile-equipped stealth corvettes and SES are facilitating a new semi-asymmetrical warfare capability, gradually transforming the fleet into a disruptive surface force.
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