North Korea unveils new 'Kim Jong Un style' 5,000-ton warship (2025)

Apr 26, 2025 9:45 PM PHT

Reuters

The5,000-tonwarshipis equipped with the 'most powerful weapons' and built 'within 400-odd days'

SEOUL, South Korea – NorthKorean leader KimJong-unattended a ceremony for the launch of a “newmultipurpose destroyer,” state media KCNA reported on Saturday, April 26.

The5,000-tonwarshipwas equipped with the “most powerful weapons” and built “within 400-odd days perfectly with our own strength and technology,” the report said, quoting Jo ChunRyong, a secretary in the ruling Workers’ Party.

Kim, in a speech from the launch reported by KCNA, said thewarshipwould be handed over to the navy and go into service early next year.

Footage fromNorthKorea’s state-runtelevision KRT showed Kim arriving in Nampho with his daughter Ju Ae after travelling to the western port city by train.

“If the US continues to renewits record in the protests of military power, we will have no choice but to renewit in the exercise of strategic deterrence,” the leader was heard saying on TV footage.

Kim YoJong, the powerful sister of KimJongUn, also appeared in the TV footage.

The launch, which took place on Friday at the military shipbuilding dockyard of Nampho, marked anewera of the “great KimJongUn-style fleet building,” KCNA said, quoting Vice-Admiral Pak Kwang Sop.

The ship was graded as the “Choe Hyon-class,” named after anti-Japanese revolutionary fighter Choe Hyon, the report said.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported thatNorthKorea’snewclass ofwarshipwas able to accommodate dozens of vertical launch cells to carry missiles its military has already developed, citinganalysis of a satellite image.

Kim also said strong pre-emptive attack capabilities were the most “convincing war deterrent” and that there was no limit to the scope of such attacks.

“The security environment of our country is very serious right now,” the leader was quoted as saying by KCNA while vowing to build a fleet for open-sea operations.

He also thanked the workers and technicians for building thenewdestroyer, which was “true to the party’s line of strengthening the naval forces,” according to KCNA.

Kim also said that theUnited States was deploying strategic assets in theKorean Peninsula on a regular basis.

The B-1Bstrategic bomber was used in a joint military drill between SouthKoreaand the US earlier this month alongside fighter jets, according to Seoul’s defence ministry.

B-1B bombers have featured regularly in joint military exercises in recent years.NorthKoreacondemns the drills as a rehearsal for war. Seoul says they are purely defensive. – Rappler.com