North Korea Commissions Second Missile Destroyer
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has commissioned the destroyer Kang Kon at Wonsan and placed the ship inside what he called the state’s nuclear counteraction system, saying it should be able to deliver a “deadly retaliatory blow.”
The ceremony on 6 September put hull number 52 into the Korean People’s Navy East Sea Fleet. Kim attended with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, and daughter Kim Ju-ae, who stood beside him to take salutes, toured the vessel and appeared on large screens in state photographs. KCNA quoted him as saying the time had come “to exercise our sovereignty at sea and underwater” and that nuclear armament of the navy would make the deterrent more practical and varied.
Kang Kon is the second ship of the Choe Hyon class after the lead vessel, commissioned on 23 June and assigned to the West Sea Fleet. Both are assessed at about 5,000 tons and roughly 145 metres long, the largest surface combatants North Korea has put to sea. Open-source analysis credits the class with a large vertical-launch battery, a 127mm gun, close-in weapons, torpedoes and phased-array radars, and with the ability to fire anti-ship, air-defence and land-attack missiles, including nuclear-capable cruise missiles of the Hwasal series. KCNA itself did not specify that nuclear warheads are already embarked.
The ship’s path to the pier was messy. It capsized during a side-launch at Hambuk Shipyard in Chongjin in May 2025, an episode Kim then called a “criminal act.” After salvage and repair it was relaunched that June. In early July 2026 Kim watched trials that included a strategic cruise-missile shot, gunfire and electronic-warfare tests, then ordered the ship into service within two months. Jo Chun Ryong told the Wonsan gathering that combat efficiency had been checked through staged assessments.
Kim said a further naval plan would be shown within eight months. Earlier remarks have spoken of two major surface ships a year and of a future 10,000-ton “strategic” cruiser class. Two more Choe Hyon hulls are already under construction. The commissioning fell as the United States, South Korea and Japan began the five-day Freedom Edge exercise south and east of Jeju. Kim called the Sea of Japan and nearby waters a primary concern because of allied ships and drills.
