Destroyer Choe Hyon conducts test-fire of strategic cruise missiles

March 11, 2026

Amid the continued tests of operational efficiency of the destroyer Choe Hyon of the Navy of the Korean People's Army, a strategic cruise missile test-fire was conducted again on March 10.

Comrade Kim Jong Un oversaw the test-fire online.

He said that the test-fire on the destroyer was aimed at evaluating the reliability of the national integrated control system of strategic weapons and the warship’s detection and weapon systems and verifying the combat effectiveness of the integrated combat system in technical aspects and at demonstrating the Navy's strategic attack posture and making sailors well versed in the relevant military actions in other aspects.

The data on targets was transmitted to the destroyer Choe Hyon, the launch was approved according to relevant procedures and strategic cruise missiles were launched simultaneously to hit several targets.

The missiles flew along the flight trajectory set in the sky above the West Sea of Korea for 10 116s to 10 138s and hit the separate island targets.

Kim Jong Un expressed his great satisfaction over the verified reliability of the national integrated control system of strategic weapons and superiority of the vessel’s integrated combat system.

He gave important instructions on reexamining in a Korean way the configuration of weapon systems of the destroyer to be built in the future in the light of the actual requirements in military aspects and from the development-oriented view.

Underlining the need to examine the military efficiency of the naval automatic gun installed on the warship in line with the specific conditions of the country, he expressed his view that it would be more advantageous to enhance the anti-warship and strategic attack capabilities in keeping with the vessel’s operational features by equipping high-speed warships of below 3 000 tonnage with such naval automatic guns and additionally installing supersonic weapon systems, instead of those guns, on the 5 000-tonnage and 8 000-tonnage destroyers in the future.

He stressed the need to examine the plan for organizing such Korean-style weapon system and apply it first to the third destroyer to be built.

Noting that it is a very important strategic task to maintain and expand the powerful and reliable nuclear war deterrent, he said:

"The components of our war deterrent are now being included in the very sophisticated operational system in an effective and accelerated manner continuously and the country's nuclear forces have made a switch to the phase of multifaceted operation.

“Important successes have been recently made in putting the strategic and tactical strike means on a practical basis and deploying them for an actual war.

“Such successes have updated the readiness of our army for strategic action and enhanced the confidence in it.

“Our belief and confidence based on those verified capabilities make it possible to take the initiative in the military activities for national defence and will play an important role in further developing our potential."

He stressed that the DPRK's offensive weapon systems undergoing constant development constitute an indispensable factor thoroughly for self-defence.

He set forth a series of important tasks for rapidly increasing the fighting efficiency of the Navy, including the issue of delivering the destroyer to the Navy within the set time by finishing the assessment of its manoeuvrability and the operational capabilities of its other weapon systems, namely, anti-air, anti-submarine and torpedo weapon systems, the issue of stepping up the building of another destroyer to finish it before the founding anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea this year and the issue of reinforcing the existing infrastructure of the naval base and building a new one.

KCNA

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