North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Shows Off New Nuclear Warship Amid Global Uncertainty

SEOUL: North Korea has commissioned a 5,000-ton destroyer that leader Kim Jong Un has touted as a symbol of the country’s growing naval and nuclear capabilities, as Pyongyang seeks to expand its ability to project military power at sea, state media reported on Wednesday.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim said at a commissioning ceremony in the western port of Nampo on Tuesday that warships such as the Choe Hyon showed that his navy’s nuclear armament was progressing as planned.

KCNA said after the ceremony that Choe Hyon was officially commissioned into service in the North Korean navy and will be assigned to defend the country’s west coast.

Since the ship’s unveiling in April 2025, Kim has portrayed Choe Hyon as a major step towards expanding his military’s operational reach and preemptive strike capabilities. KCNA said the warship was equipped with a number of systems, including anti-aircraft and anti-ship weapons, as well as nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles.

South Korean officials and experts say the ship was likely built with Russian help at a time when military ties between the countries were deepening, but some analysts question whether the ship is ready for active service.

North Korea subjected the Choe Hyon to a series of tests in recent months before its deployment, including launching what it described as nuclear-capable cruise missiles from the ship.

“The era when our navy existed as a force to defend the sea in our territory is clearly a thing of the past,” Kim said at Tuesday’s ceremony. he said. “The program to equip the Navy with nuclear weapons is rising towards a full-fledged service equipped with strategic means, as it follows the planned course without fail.”

After years of promoting ballistic missile development, Kim has shifted his focus more to naval capabilities, including the ongoing construction of a nuclear-powered submarine. Naval capabilities were also a major focus when Kim outlined his five-year military goals at the Workers’ Party congress in February, which included calls for underwater-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Following the missile test at Choe Hyon in March, Kim claimed that efforts to arm his navy with nuclear weapons “will constitute a radical change in defending our maritime sovereignty that we have not achieved in half a century.” State media did not elaborate on what Kim meant, but some analysts say North Korea may be preparing to officially declare a maritime border that could encroach on waters controlled by rival South Korea.

As inter-Korean tensions worsened, Kim repeatedly said he did not recognize the Northern Demarcation Line in the western sea drawn by the US-led UN Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The poorly drawn maritime border has been the scene of several deadly clashes in recent years.

North Korea unveiled a second destroyer of the same class as Choe Hyon in May 2025, but it was damaged during a failed launch in the northern port of Chongjin, prompting an angry response from Kim. The country later said the ship, Kang Kon, was relaunched in June after repairs, but outside experts questioned whether the ship was fully operational.

In his speech on Tuesday, Kim said that Kang Kon will also be put into service soon. North Korea also has plans to build a larger 10,000-ton destroyer.

Since his nuclear diplomacy with US President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019, Kim has accelerated the expansion of his nuclear arsenal and deepened ties with Moscow and Beijing. While he maintained his tough stance against South Korea, he left the door open to renewed talks with Washington by reiterating Pyongyang’s demand that the United States abandon denuclearization as a precondition for reviving talks.

Separately, the South Korean military said on Wednesday it detained an unidentified North Korean soldier who crossed the heavily fortified inter-Korean border on Tuesday night. Southern Chiefs of Staff said that the soldier expressed his intention to defect and the relevant authorities were investigating the incident.