Kim Jong Un Says North Korea's New Destroyer Will Join Its Nuclear Response System

North Korea's newest destroyer will form part of the country's nuclear response system and could deliver “annihilating retaliatory strikes,” leader Kim Jong Un said, according to state media. The report did not say whether the ship itself would carry nuclear weapons.

Kim made the comments at a commissioning ceremony on Sunday in the eastern port city of Wonsan. He said deploying the Kang Kon to waters east of the Korean Peninsula sent a clear signal to North Korea's adversaries. “The time has come for us to exercise our sovereignty at sea and under water,” he said, according to KCNA.

The 5,000-ton-class Kang Kon is the second warship of its class to enter service. The Choe Hyon destroyer entered service on North Korea's west coast about three months earlier. KCNA said the Kang Kon has the same weapons systems as the Choe Hyon, but it did not identify those systems in detail.

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annihilating retaliatory strikes

An earlier KCNA report said Choe Hyon-class destroyers can carry several types of weapons, including missiles that analysts say could carry a nuclear payload. Kim said North Korea's naval nuclear armaments were advancing and that the country would continue expanding its most powerful strategic assets in key waters to protect maritime sovereignty and regional security.

Kim also said construction of naval bases on North Korea's east coast was under way. He said the country would create new naval units and build different classes of warships, and that he would demonstrate another stage of the naval buildup in eight months without giving further details.

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The time has come for us to exercise our sovereignty at sea and under water