North Korea commissioned the destroyer Kang Con, a ship that tilted when launched

Mr. Kim Jong-un and his daughter attended the commissioning ceremony of the destroyer Kang Kon, a warship that capsized when launched in May 2025.

The commissioning ceremony of the destroyer Kang Kon took place at Wonsan port on September 6, with the attendance of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, his daughter and many officials and military commanders.

"According to the orders of the Korean Central Military Commission, the Kang Kon ship will be assigned to the East Sea Fleet, carrying out the important mission of protecting North Korea's maritime sovereignty as a nuclear deterrent force," North Korea's central news agency KCNA said today.

North and South Korea use the term East Sea to refer to the sea between the peninsula and Japan. This area is called the Sea of ​​Japan by Tokyo.

Leader Kim Jong-un affirmed that the Kang Kon destroyer "not only converges economic, defense and scientific and technical capabilities, but also demonstrates the will and spirit of North Korea in protecting the nation's legitimate rights and interests."

He announced that North Korea is developing naval nuclear capabilities and will continue to accelerate the deployment of strategic assets in key sea areas to protect island sovereignty and regional security.

According to the North Korean leader, as a force in the national nuclear counterattack system, a state-of-the-art destroyer like the Kang Kon "must be ready to strike a fatal retaliation against the enemy whenever ordered."

North Korea has not announced the weapon systems that the Kang Kon destroyer is equipped with. KCNA said the ship's configuration is similar to the warship Choe Hyon, which was commissioned in June. Experts say that Choe Hyon-class destroyers can carry missiles with nuclear warheads.

Kang Kon is the second ship of the Choe Hyon class, the largest and most modern warship model in North Korean history. The ship encountered a serious incident during the launching ceremony at the shipyard in Chongjin city in May 2025. Satellite images show that it is tilted and lying in a precarious position, half on land and half underwater, which is one of the most difficult states for rescue operations.

KCNA initially said "some parts of the ship's bottom were crushed", but later announced that a detailed inspection of the underwater part and inside the warship showed no holes as preliminary information.

The warship Kang Kon was successfully rescued and launched in June 2025. Western experts at that time questioned whether it could reach a fully operational state.

North Korea calls the Choe Hyon class destroyers, while Western experts evaluate them as heavy missile corvettes with a water displacement not inferior to advanced warship models in Europe.

Each ship has a length of 140-145 m, a width of 16 m, and a full load displacement of about 5,000 tons. The Choe Hyon was initially equipped with 74 vertical missile launch tubes (VLS), placed in two launcher clusters at the front and rear of the superstructure. North Korea then seemed to change its configuration, increasing it to 88 launch tubes.

For comparison, the Constellation-class corvette that the US canceled its development program only has 32 Mark 41 launch tubes, while the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer with a displacement of more than 9,000 tons is equipped with 90-96 tubes.

In addition, each ship is also equipped with a 127 mm naval gun, a Pantsir-ME close-range defense complex, two AK-630 automatic rapid-fire guns, anti-ship missile launchers and Bulsae-4 anti-tank guided missile platforms.