Pyongyang, North Korea - North Korea will equip its navy with nuclear weapons and build larger warships, leader Kim Jong Un said according to state media Wednesday, as Pyongyang pushes ahead with a military expansion.
The hermetic nation is under multiple sets of sanctions over a nuclear program its leaders have vowed to pursue as an essential deterrent to the US and South Korea.
Kim made his remarks at the commissioning of the Choe Hyon – one of two 5,000-tonne (5,500 tons) class warships launched last year – in the port city of Nampho on Tuesday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
"The program of equipping the Navy with nuclear weapons is following its planned course unerringly," Kim reportedly told the ceremony.
"This is a strategic course of crucial importance as it will make it possible to keep the nuclear force of our state ready for multifaceted and efficient operation," he said.
North Korea previously said the Choe Hyon is equipped with the "most powerful weapons," and Kim oversaw a cruise missile test from the vessel in April.
"Following the Choe Hyon, we will soon commission destroyer Kang Kon for operations. After that, we will launch 10,000-ton strategic warships one after another," Kim said, according to a KCNA report released in English.
He added the North aimed to "build every year two surface ships, whose class is higher than the Choe Hyon," including one 10,000-tonne (11,000 tons) cruiser.
A 10,000-tonne class naval ship, such as the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer of which the US Navy has dozens, or South Korea's Sejong the Great-class at full load – is typically about 492-557 feet long, roughly the size of 1.5 soccer fields, and weighs as much as several thousand cars.
The South Korean navy runs more than 10 ships over 5,000 tonnes compared to the North's two.
Kim promises faster modernization of North Korea's military
"The 10,000-tonne mark will carry symbolism for the North," said military studies professor Choi Gi-il at Sangji University.
"A ship of that size will indicate Pyongyang's determination not to fall further behind the maritime power of Seoul," he told AFP.
Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear state since a 2019 summit between Kim and US counterpart Donald Trump in Hanoi collapsed over the scope of denuclearisation and sanctions relief.
North Korea remains technically at war with the South because the neighbors' 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
Photos released by KCNA showed Kim saluting the Choe Hyon flanked by senior officials and delivering a speech aboard the newly commissioned vessel.
Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University, said the move was primarily aimed at sending a message to the US – South Korea's main security ally.
"The key point is that North Korea sees these weapons as part of an effort to more effectively deter or impede US military intervention on the Korean Peninsula in the event of a conflict," he told AFP.
"If the North deploys ship-launched cruise missiles armed with tactical nuclear warheads, it would significantly increase the burden on South Korean and US militaries and drive up the costs of defence and deterrence," he added.
The announcement came days after Kim used a key ruling party meeting to pledge faster military modernization, accusing South Korea and the US of pushing the Korean Peninsula "to the brink of a nuclear war."
Washington stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to bolster Seoul's defenses against military threats from Pyongyang.