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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will equip its navy with nuclear weapons and build larger warships, state media reported Wednesday, as Pyongyang pushes ahead with military modernization.
Kim made the remarks Tuesday at a commissioning ceremony for the Choe Hyon, one of two 5,000-ton-class warships launched last year, at Nampo Port, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
The warship completed more than a year of operational testing before officially joining the Korean People's Army Navy.
"The programme of equipping the Navy with nuclear weapons is following its planned course unerringly," Kim said at the ceremony, according to KCNA.
He said the move was "a strategic course of crucial importance" because it would allow North Korea's nuclear force to be ready for "multifaceted and efficient operation."
Kim described the Choe Hyon as a major step in modernizing North Korea's naval forces and strengthening the country's maritime defense capabilities.
"The navy is confidently growing into a branch of the military equipped with strategic means, and its nuclear armament is proceeding precisely according to its own path," Kim said, according to state media.
He said the destroyer had advanced combat capabilities and marked the beginning of a new era for North Korea's navy, which he said had long lagged behind other branches of the armed forces.
Photos released by KCNA showed Kim saluting the Choe Hyon, flanked by senior officials, and delivering a speech aboard the newly commissioned vessel.
North Korea previously said the Choe Hyon was equipped with the "most powerful weapons," and Kim oversaw a cruise missile test from the vessel in April.
Kim said North Korea would soon commission another destroyer, the Kang Geon, for operations.
"Following the Choe Hyon, we will soon commission destroyer Kang Kon for operations. After that we will launch 10,000-ton strategic warships one after another," Kim said, according to a KCNA report released in English.
He said North Korea aimed to build two surface ships every year with a class higher than the Choe Hyon, including one 10,000-ton cruiser.
A 10,000-ton-class naval ship, such as the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers used by the U.S. Navy or South Korea's Sejong the Great-class at full load, is typically 150 to 170 meters long, roughly the size of 1.5 football pitches, and weighs as much as several thousand cars.
The South Korean navy operates more than 10 ships over 5,000 tons, compared with North Korea's two.
Military studies professor Choi Gi-il at Sangji University said the 10,000-ton mark would carry symbolism for North Korea.
"A ship of that size will indicate Pyongyang's determination not to fall further behind the maritime power of Seoul," he reportedly told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Kim said the ruling Workers' Party had approved the construction of new naval bases to accommodate larger warships and support an expanding fleet.
The announcement came days after Kim used a key ruling party meeting to pledge faster military modernization.
At that meeting, Kim accused South Korea and the United States of pushing the Korean Peninsula "to the brink of a nuclear war."
North Korea is under multiple sets of sanctions over its nuclear program, which its leaders have vowed to pursue as an essential deterrent against the United States and South Korea.
Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear state since a 2019 summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi collapsed over the scope of denuclearization and sanctions relief.
Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University, said the move was primarily aimed at sending a message to the United States, South Korea's main security ally.
"The key point is that North Korea sees these weapons as part of an effort to more effectively deter or impede U.S. military intervention on the Korean Peninsula in the event of a conflict," Lim told AFP.
"If the North deploys ship-launched cruise missiles armed with tactical nuclear warheads, it would significantly increase the burden on South Korean and U.S. militaries and drive up the costs of defence and deterrence," he added.
Washington stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to bolster Seoul's defenses against military threats from Pyongyang.
North Korea remains technically at war with South Korea because the neighbors' 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
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