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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered his navy to build a 10,000-ton destroyer and develop secret underwater weapons.

Getting into it: State media reported that Kim unveiled the plans Thursday during sea trials of the 5,000-ton destroyer Kang Kon, which he boarded before observing its sister ship, the Choe Hyon, and ordering both warships into service as soon as possible. He framed the buildup as a nuclear-deterrence push, saying the country must “enhance the navy’s capability to deter a nuclear war” and develop forces able to strike “under the water or on the water,” with the larger destroyer and unspecified underwater weapons as goals of a new five-year defense plan. According to one South Korean analyst, it was the first time Pyongyang had publicly mentioned building a warship that size.

Few of North Korea’s recent military builds have pulled as much attention as the Kang Kon, and not entirely for flattering reasons. The ship partially capsized during its launch ceremony at Chongjin in May 2025, an embarrassment Kim furiously denounced as a “criminal act” before it was repaired at Rajin and relaunched. It and the Choe Hyon are the two new 5,000-ton destroyers North Korea has rolled out over the past year, and while state media claim the vessels can carry nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles, outside experts remain divided over how combat-ready they actually are.

Kim was accompanied on the ship inspection by his teenage daughter, Kim Ju Ae, whose steadily growing role at these kinds of military showings has South Korean officials betting she’s being lined up to eventually take over.

The naval push also follows a separate declaration last week, when Kim called for an “exponential” expansion of his nuclear arsenal during a visit to a newly operational nuclear-material facility that South Korea’s military reads as a fresh site for enriching uranium into bomb fuel.