Kim Jong Un is threatening US, Japan and South Korea with its most advanced warship, a 5000-ton nuclear missile carrying destroyers; second warship commissioned as rivals launch drills

North Korea has commissioned a second 5,000-ton-class destroyer, placing another of its most heavily armed surface warships into service as the United States, South Korea and Japan begin a five-day military exercise aimed at improving their ability to respond to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile threats.

The Kang Kon, commissioned at the eastern port of Wonsan on September 6, is the second vessel of North Korea’s new Choe Hyon-class destroyers. Its entry into service is significant not simply because of the ship’s size, but because Kim Jong Un has explicitly assigned it a role in North Korea’s nuclear response system.

North Korea’s new 5,000-ton destroyer

The Kang Kon is the sister ship of the Choe Hyon, which North Korea commissioned less than three months earlier. At about 5,000 tons, the class is the largest surface combatant North Korea has ever built, according to an analysis by 38 North. The ships represent a substantial departure from the relatively small patrol and missile vessels that have traditionally dominated the country's navy.

North Korean state media has presented the ships as part of a broader transformation of the navy. At the Kang Kon commissioning ceremony, Kim called the vessel an “essentially offensive destroyer” and said it belonged to the “state nuclear counteraction system.” He also said North Korea needed to develop its navy into a “nuclear armed force.”

The distinction is important. Publicly available information does not establish that nuclear warheads are permanently deployed aboard the ship. But North Korea has demonstrated that the vessel can launch weapons that Pyongyang describes as strategic or nuclear-capable. In July, Kim personally supervised tests involving a strategic cruise missile and other weapons from the Kang Kon.

What makes the destroyer different

The Choe Hyon-class ships appear to have been designed around a large missile arsenal rather than simply traditional naval guns.

Analysis of the first vessel identified extensive vertical-launch systems, advanced radar and several types of defensive and offensive weapons. Naval News estimated that the Choe Hyon could carry up to 104 missiles of various types, although the precise operational weapons load of the class remains difficult to independently verify.

The destroyers are also equipped with a 127mm-class naval gun, close-in defensive weapons, torpedo launchers and systems associated with air defence and electronic warfare.

That makes the ships important beyond their headline 5,000-ton displacement. They give North Korea a much larger platform from which it can combine conventional missiles, air defence and strategic weapons at sea.

Kang Kon had a disastrous first launch

The Kang Kon's path into service was unusually turbulent. The destroyer suffered a major accident during its initial launch attempt in May 2025, when it partially capsized. North Korean state media subsequently reported that Kim had condemned the incident as a serious failure.

Rather than abandoning the project, Pyongyang accelerated the ship's recovery. In July 2026, Kim oversaw weapons testing aboard the repaired vessel and ordered that it be commissioned within two months. It ultimately entered service ahead of North Korea's September 9 founding anniversary.

The destroyer arrives as three rivals conduct drills

The timing of the commissioning is particularly striking. On September 7, the United States, South Korea and Japan began the latest Freedom Edge exercise in international waters east and south of South Korea's Jeju Island. The five-day exercise is the fourth iteration of the trilateral drill, which began in 2024.

According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, the exercise covers multiple domains, including maritime, air and cyber operations. Its stated purpose is to strengthen deterrence and joint responses to North Korean nuclear and missile threats. The JCS described the exercise as defensive and said it was being conducted in accordance with international law.

The exercise also includes enhanced real-time information sharing, air-defence scenarios and maritime interdiction training, according to US and South Korean military announcements.

For Pyongyang, however, such exercises have long been viewed very differently. North Korea routinely describes US-South Korean and trilateral military drills as rehearsals for an invasion.

Kim is expanding the nuclear role of the navy

The two destroyers appear to be part of a much larger naval ambition. Kim has ordered the construction of additional large surface warships and has indicated that further strategic naval developments are coming. Yonhap reported that North Korea has discussed building additional vessels exceeding 5,000 tons, including ships in the 10,000-ton class.

Pyongyang is also pursuing a nuclear-powered submarine. North Korean state media showed Kim inspecting what it described in December 2025 as an 8,700-ton-class nuclear-propelled submarine under development. Yonhap reported that Kim has publicly framed the development of nuclear-powered naval capabilities as an important part of strengthening the country's maritime forces.

This suggests that the Kang Kon is not an isolated weapons project. It is part of Kim's effort to extend North Korea's nuclear deterrent beyond land-based missiles and into the maritime domain.

Why the naval shift matters

North Korea already relies heavily on ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons as the foundation of its deterrent. Putting strategic weapons aboard larger warships could give Pyongyang another way of dispersing those capabilities and complicating an adversary's calculations.

North Korea has moved from unveiling its first 5,000-ton destroyer to commissioning a second within months, while simultaneously testing strategic weapons from the ships and discussing still larger naval platforms. Kim's own description of the Kang Kon leaves little ambiguity about the intended role: the navy is increasingly being incorporated into North Korea's nuclear deterrence strategy.

And that transformation is unfolding at the same moment that the US, South Korea and Japan are rehearsing how to counter the very nuclear and missile capabilities Pyongyang is putting to sea.