A new anti-ship missile that North Korea claims to have developed is believed to be a Russian-made missile, and its deployment will help modernize the North's navy and represent fresh threats to South Korea and the U.S., an analyst said Sunday.

The North's state media claimed Saturday that the country developed a new "ultra-precision anti-ship rocket" that will be deployed soon at its naval units and leader Kim Jong-un observed a test-firing of the new missile.

Though the North claims to have developed the missile on its own, it appears to be a Russian Kh-35E anti-ship cruise missile, said Joseph Bermudez, an expert on North Korea's military, in a report carried by the website 38 North.

"Whether the KPN acquired the system directly from Russia or a third party is unclear as is whether it is a licensed produced or reversed engineered version of the missile," he said, referring to the North's navy by its formal name, the Korean People's Navy.

"Should the new system be successfully integrated into the KPN and widely deployed it would represent a significant step toward redressing the service's obsolescence and increasing the threat poised to South Korean and U.S. Navy vessels in the region," he said.

And if this happens, a logical next step would be to deploy a coastal defense version, the expert said.

The potential threat posed by a Kh-35 system could be further expanded if the North's air force deploys the Kh-35EUL air-launched version, which could endow its ancient obsolete fleet of Il-28 light bombers with a modern standoff missile capability, he said.

Bermudez cautioned, however, that these potential developments are just possibilities.

"The North's navy -- and military industrial system in general-- has a long history of slow and often poor system integration. While these recent developments are important, time will determine whether North Korea has the ability to realize the potential of this new system," he said. (Yonhap)