Kim Jong Un commissions 5,000-ton destroyer, pledges nuclear armament of navy and 10,000-ton warships

Destroyer Choe Hyon formally commissioned

At the port of Nampo on Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over the entry into service of the 5,000-ton destroyer Choe Hyon, state media reported. The vessel, first unveiled in April 2025, is equipped with anti-aircraft and anti-ship systems as well as nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles, according to KCNA. It has undergone a series of tests in recent months, including a cruise-missile launch supervised by Kim in March.

“It has clearly become a thing of the past when our navy existed as a force for defending the sea off our land.”

Ambitious build plan for nuclear fleet

Kim declared that the program to arm the navy with nuclear weapons "is following its planned course unerringly" and said the service is rising into a full-fledged strategic force. He announced that another destroyer, the Kang Kon, will soon be commissioned, after which Pyongyang will begin launching strategic 10,000-ton warships. Under the plan, North Korea expects to build two surface ships per year of a class superior to the Choe Hyon, including a 10,000-ton cruiser.

“After the Choe Hyon, we will soon commission the destroyer Kang Kon. Then we will launch strategic 10,000-ton warships one after another.”

Analysts question readiness

South Korean officials and experts believe the Choe Hyon was built with Russian assistance amid deepening military ties, but some analysts doubt its immediate combat capability. Research fellow Peter Ward of the Sejong Institute in Seoul argued that North Korea is dispersing its arsenal so widely that no single strike could eliminate it, and that threshold-level nuclear states invite attack rather than deterrence.

“A country that remains at the threshold level is drawing a big fat target on its back.”

Nuclear expansion and regional tensions

At a Workers' Party plenary that ended Monday, Kim called the steady expansion of nuclear forces "the most correct and unique way" to confront what he described as growing threats from the United States and its allies. Senior research fellow Hong Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification said the scale of the arsenal reflects the need to counter the US nuclear umbrella, combined US-South Korean forces, and trilateral cooperation with Japan, going "beyond minimum deterrence." The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950-1953 conflict ended with an armistice, and Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an irreversible nuclear state since the failed 2019 denuclearisation summit with Donald Trump.