Yugo Class North Korean Diesel-Electric Midget Submarine

The North Korean Yugo class (NATO code name) is said by some sources to be so named because it was built to plans supplied by Yugoslavia in 1965. The Yugoslav Navy was designed to control the coast of the Adriatic with fast patrol boats, frigates, and small submarines. These submarines included three Heroj class submarines commissioned in the 1960s, no less than nine Una and Mala class midgets submarines (the same model was later sold to North Korea), and two more modern Sava class boats laid down in 1975. The Savas was 964 tons full load displacement and carried six 533mm forward torpedo tubes in a 65 meter (213 foot) long hull. Pyongyang exported some midget submarines to Vietnam in 1997. Vietnam purchased two Yugo-class midget submarines from North Korea that are torpedo-capable but are used mostly for swimmer/diver delivery. A Yugo-class midget submarine from North Korea was seized in late June 1998 on the territorial waters of South Korea. The North Korean Yugo-class midget submarine was found to have nine dead men, who were speculated to have preferred death instead of capture. The North Korean Yugo-class midget submarine, which sank after getting entangled in nets utilized for fishing, was believed to be performing an infiltration mission in South Korea.