Kim orders annual build of two destroyers for five years

Kim Jong Un ordered North Korea’s shipyards to produce two destroyers the size of the 5,000-metric-ton Choe Hyon every year for the next five years, a demand that would amount to 10 large warships if carried through. He made the call at the commissioning ceremony for the new multipurpose destroyer at Nampho port, after the ship completed 14 months of military operational tests.

The order puts the navy at the center of North Korea’s military ambitions after Kim described it as the weakest part of the country’s armed forces. He said building a modernized naval base had become a desperate and essential task, and he also pointed to 10,000-ton strategic warships as part of a force that is moving toward nuclearization. North Korea plans to deploy another 5,000-ton destroyer, Kang Kon, soon.

The broader program is already reaching beyond a single launch. Officials from the ruling Workers’ Party discussed plans to build new naval bases at a meeting on Monday, tying the destroyer order to infrastructure, basing and fleet expansion rather than to a one-off showcase at the port.

The scale of the announcement invites a hard question: whether Pyongyang is preparing a genuine naval modernization effort or staging a political display meant to reinforce deterrence and domestic prestige. North Korea has kept investing in military hardware despite sanctions and international isolation, and state media has used the Choe Hyon launch to project strength and technological progress. For South Korea, Japan and the United States, a larger North Korean surface fleet would complicate defense planning, especially if the ships are linked to new missile systems or to the regime’s nuclear doctrine.