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Park Chan-kyong

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s promise to unveil more projects in eight months’ time at the launch of the country’s second modern destroyer hints at another major strategic military asset, according to experts.
“The nuclearisation of our navy is being realised, making it increasingly suited, diversified and practical for the use of our deterrent,” Kim said while commissioning the Kang Kon in the southeastern port of Wonsan on Sunday.
Kim was accompanied by his daughter and potential successor, Kim Ju-ae, his wife, Ri Sol-ju, his influential sister, Kim Yo-jong, and other senior officials
“We must make the practical operation of our nuclear combat systems more diverse and effective, and our military activities for maritime defence and war deterrence more explicit, by making our powerful and reliable nuclear war deterrent more clear,” he said. “Concerns of the enemies will be surely deepened.”
North Korea was currently carrying out “important plans to strengthen our naval forces”, Kim said without elaborating. “I will demonstrate them to the world once again eight months from now.”

This specific time frame suggests that North Korea could unveil another large-scale asset, such as a submarine capable of carrying submarine-launched ballistic missiles or a nuclear-powered submarine, according to observers.
It could be a “disclosure of progress in the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine, a third destroyer or additional naval bases”, said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies. Other possibilities included “nuclear torpedoes designed for use by destroyers or improved versions of strategic cruise missiles”.
The commissioning of the Kang Kon came roughly 15 months after the vessel was damaged during its launch in May 2025, and 75 days after the first modern destroyer of the same class, the Choe Hyon, was put into active service in June.
The Choe Hyon is operating in the Yellow Sea off North Korea’s western coast, while the Kang Kon has been deployed in the Sea of Japan off the eastern coast. Both are the North’s most advanced 5,000-tonne destroyers and are equipped with nuclear-capable missiles.
Sovereignty exercise
The back-to-back commissioning of the two destroyers underscored North Korea’s efforts to develop a more diversified and operationally credible naval nuclear deterrent, Kim said.
“This is a clear reality that allows us to measure the speed at which our navy is changing,” he said. The North Korean armed forces’ duty was to “safeguard the absolute security of the state, maintain strategic stability and the balance of power in the region, and deter geopolitical threats”.
The commissioning ceremony came as the United States, South Korea and Japan kicked off their five-day Freedom Edge exercise on Monday in waters off South Korea’s Jeju Island, in a demonstration of their commitment to deterring North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.
“The fact that the Kang Kon is being officially commissioned into the maritime force of the East Sea, and the information that naval bases are being built in the East Sea, sends an unmistakable signal to our enemies,” Kim said. “Now is the time to exercise our sovereignty directly at sea and underwater as well.”


The East Sea is the name used by both Koreas for the Sea of Japan, off the eastern coast of the Korean peninsula.
Yang said the move appeared to serve multiple purposes: “addressing North Korea’s relatively weaker defensive posture in the East Sea, responding to Japan’s recent moves to strengthen its military capabilities, countering the presence of US aircraft carriers, and potentially taking into consideration expanding maritime military cooperation with Russia”.
Although North Korean state media did not explicitly mention Ju-ae in its report, photographs showing her accompanying her father underlined her position in the hierarchy, Yang said. “Her attendance may be intended as part of her military education and exposure to high-level defence and naval affairs as a potential future successor.”
The commissioning of the Kang Kon, and North Korea’s broader effort to nuclearise its navy, could also be intended to portray the country's ability to secure the Kim family’s bloodline, according to Yang.
“Kim Ju-ae’s visible participation in events alongside senior party, government and military officials may be intended to strengthen her public image and cultivate familiarity and personal affinity, thereby indirectly building support for the future leadership succession,” he said.
Addressing the Kang Kon’s crew, Kim described the destroyer as “one means and capability incorporated into the state nuclear response system”.
“If the adversaries attempt to use force against us, I will order you comrades to use absolute power that will be most lethal to the enemy. You must deliver a devastating retaliatory strike against the enemy at any moment that order is given.”
‘Nuclear for nuclear’
Those remarks amounted to a public declaration that North Korea was “moving towards the operational deployment of a sea-based nuclear response system”, said Lim Eul-chul, a political-science professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.
They also signal efforts to make the country’s maritime nuclear deterrent more practical and diversified, including through the deployment of tactical nuclear-capable cruise missiles, according to Lim.
“This suggests that the vessels are intended to be operated as launch platforms for tactical nuclear-capable multipurpose cruise missiles, or submarine-launched cruise missiles,” Lim said.
“In particular, by designating the East Sea as a major security threat area and forward-deploying the Kang Kon there, North Korea appears to be pursuing an Anti-Access/Area Denial, or A2/AD, strategy aimed at directly deterring South Korean, US and Japanese naval exercises and the deployment of their nuclear assets within the destroyer’s operational range,” he said.
The East Sea is a key approach route for US Navy aircraft carriers and strategic ballistic-missile submarines.

“By explicitly referring to the construction of a blue-water fleet and expansion into distant waters, North Korea is signalling that it intends to continue building larger warships and expanding its naval capabilities,” Lim said.
In his speech, Kim singled out the East Sea as North Korea’s greatest security threat.
“Nowhere else on Earth can you find waters surrounding any country where warships of the opposing side constantly appear, carrying out the movement and deployment of nuclear assets and joint warfare demonstrations without any restrictions, and using them as a stage to track and deter even the legitimate exercise of self-defence,” he said.
“We must respond thoroughly to these threats with highly professional and overwhelming force, possessing the will and sufficient capability to use it.”
By openly declaring the nuclearisation of its warships, Pyongyang was making clear the concept of a “nuclear-for-nuclear” confrontation and showing its intention to directly counter the deployment of US naval forces with a sea-based nuclear deterrent, according to Lim.
“North Korea also sent a strong A2/AD message by saying it would ‘strictly constrain’ US naval forces and force them to make a ‘strategic retreat’. This indicates that Pyongyang does not recognise the maritime superiority that the United States has enjoyed in the East Sea and intends to challenge it,” he added.
The risk of close encounters and accidental clashes with South Korean, US and Japanese vessels is higher now that North Korea is expected to increase patrols and show of force in the Sea of Japan, according to Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
“As the East Sea is also a contact zone with the Russian Pacific Fleet, attention must be paid to the possibility that it could become a channel for accumulating open-ocean operational experience through future joint North Korea-Russia naval activities or port calls,” he added.


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North Korean sailors march past the Kang Kon during its commissioning ceremony at Wonsan Port on Sunday. Photo: KCNA / AFP

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Kim’s promised ‘important plans’ that will deepen the ‘concerns of the enemies’ are likely to be nuclear, observers say


Kim’s promised ‘important plans’ that will deepen the ‘concerns of the enemies’ are likely to be nuclear, observers say.


What North Korea’s new warship reveals about Kim’s moves to secure surrounding waters

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Kim’s promised ‘important plans’ that will deepen the ‘concerns of the enemies’ are likely to be nuclear, observers say

Kim’s promised ‘important plans’ that will deepen the ‘concerns of the enemies’ are likely to be nuclear, observers say