June 24, 2026, 9:38 AM EDTSEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has entered a new era of naval power that will project its nuclear capabilities, Kim Jong Un said Tuesday, as he unveiled a 5,000-ton destroyer and vowed to build even larger warships each year.The destroyer, named Choe Hyon, signals Kim’s efforts to expand Pyongyang’s military might at sea alongside the longstanding focus on his reclusive regime’s missile arsenal. The collapse of nuclear talks with President Donald Trump and a more hardline stance toward neighboring South Korea have been allied with deepening ties with Russia and China as well as an expanding nuclear arsenal.Speaking at a commissioning ceremony at the Nampho Shipyard on North Korea’s west coast, Kim said the vessel now ends “over 70 years” of stagnation in the navy, which has lagged behind not just that of South Korea and the U.S. but also behind other parts of its military. “The Navy was the weakest of all the services of our armed forces,” Kim said, according to state news agency KCNA, which said the warship will be tasked with defending North Korea’s western coast.Kim Jong Un during a commissioning ceremony for the destroyer Choe Hyon at the port in Nampo on Tuesday.KCNA via AP“But things have changed obviously now,” he said, hailing the destroyer as a “new symbol of sea defense capability.”North Korea’s program of “equipping the Navy with nuclear weapons” is following its planned course, Kim said. “It has clearly become a thing of the past when our Navy existed as a force for defending the sea off our land,” he said.The Choe Hyon destroyer, first unveiled in April last year, is equipped with anti-aircraft and anti-ship weapons and can carry nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles, KCNA said.While the Choe Hyon’s exact capabilities cannot be immediately verified, analysts say it represents a significant step in North Korea’s naval modernization efforts.“North Korea increasingly views itself as an active participant in shaping Northeast Asia’s military environment,” Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, a Seoul-backed think-tank, told NBC News. The push to modernize North Korea’s military comes at a moment of ever-growing confidence for Kim, whose regime has seen its economy rebound since the pandemic, while his expanding weapons program has strengthened North Korea’s position as a de facto nuclear state.Pyongyang’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine has also helped it gain valuable technology and resources that could help advance its arsenal.“There is a strong possibility that Russia is sharing certain technologies, equipment, expertise, and know-how with North Korea,” Moon Seong Mook, an analyst with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, told NBC News. “That may explain why Kim Jong Un appears confident enough to pursue such ambitious military expansion,” he said.North Korean sailors listen to Kim Jong Un during the commissioning ceremony at Nampho port on Tuesday. KCNA via ReutersAnd this may be just the start for Kim, who will soon also commission the Kang Kon warship that capsized during launch last May. North Korea will also launch 10,000-ton strategic warships “one after another,” Kim said, with at least two surface ships planned every year. “We are now switching over to the stage of building various surface and underwater combat systems and deploying them offshore and in the oceans without feeling any restrictions,” Kim said.However, Kim’s naval ambitions still face considerable challenges. Launching warships is one thing, but their operational capability remains an open question.Hong said that “naval infrastructure, maintenance capacity, crew training, and the ability to conduct integrated operations” will continue to pose challenges for Pyongyang’s navy.Kim also claimed that his navy can deploy warships to any desired waters. This boast was intended to “demonstrate the possibility of extending naval operations into the West Sea, broader Northeast Asia, and even distant waters,” said Yang Moo-jin, a distinguished professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.Put together with the construction of large-scale naval bases, North Korea appears “intent on expanding its ability to project nuclear capabilities at sea,” Yang said.Beyond the actual operational capability of these warships, there’s also a lot to be won at home for Kim.Promoting the idea that a “self-sufficient defense industrial production system has been fully established” despite international sanctions could strengthen “internal unity and cohesion,” Yang said.