North Korea commissions new naval destroyer Kang Kon amid regional military drills

SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has commissioned its new naval destroyer Kang Kon, state media said Monday, as the country pushes to modernize its naval assets and sharpen its combat readiness at sea with nuclear-capable vessels.

Leader Kim Jong-un attended the commissioning ceremony held a day earlier at the eastern port city of Wonsan, where he called the new 5,000-ton destroyer "essentially an offensive destroyer" and part of "the state nuclear counteraction system," according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"The new-generation destroyer should deal a deadly retaliatory blow at the enemies as it is a force involved in the state nuclear counteraction system," the KCNA reported Kim as saying.

Kim stressed the need to develop the country's navy into "a nuclear armed force" in order to carry out maritime defense and war deterrence activities "more clearly."

In addition, the North Korean leader vowed to continue developing its naval forces and deploying increasingly powerful strategic assets.

"We are in the process of implementing an important plan to bolster our navy forces, and I will prove it to the world eight months from now," he said, without elaborating further.

The plan may be related to North Korea's development of nuclear-powered submarines, publicly unveiled during a key party congress in January 2021.

Pyongyang's state media released photos in December 2025 of Kim inspecting the hull of an 8,700-ton-class nuclear-propelled submarine under development, with Kim calling South Korea's plan to build one a security threat that "must be countered."

The destroyer Kang Kon will be commissioned into the North Korean Navy's East Sea Fleet "to fulfill the responsible mission of defending the maritime sovereignty of the DPRK as the nuclear war deterrent," the KCNA said, using North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Photos carried by the KCNA showed Kim accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol-ju, and daughter Ju-ae.

The Kang Kon was commissioned less than three months after the North commissioned its sister ship, its first 5,000-ton destroyer Choe Hyon, which it said would carry out the "honorable mission" of defending the West Sea and deterring war.

The Kang Kon's production process was not without a hitch. It capsized during a botched initial launch attempt in May last year and was successfully launched about a month later.

This July, North Korea test-fired strategic cruise missiles and other weapons from the destroyer into the East Sea, with Kim overseeing the drills. Kim, at that time, ordered the warship to be commissioned into the Navy within two months.

North Korea has been accelerating its push to deploy naval assets with nuclear capabilities on both coasts, with the Choe Hyon in the West Sea and the Kang Kon in the East Sea.

Early this year, Pyongyang unveiled plans to build two large warships of over 5,000 tons over the next five years, including 10,000-ton-class warships.

The ceremony announcement came as South Korea, the United States and Japan on Monday kicked off their five-day multidomain Freedom Edge military exercise in international waters east and south of South Korea's southern island of Jeju.

North Korea has denounced such military drills as war rehearsals.

The drills will involve major maritime and air assets from armed forces of the three countries, "aimed at enhancing deterrence and response capabilities against North Korean nuclear and missile threats, while safeguarding regional peace and stability," according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Sunday's ceremony also came ahead of the 78th anniversary of North Korea's founding on Sept. 9.