North Korea Reveals Development of 8,000 Ton Heavy Destroyers As Part of Navy’s Blue Water Revolution

Commenting on a live fire cruise missile exercise launched by the Korean People’s Army Navy’s first destroyer, the Choe Hyon, Chairman of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party Kim Jong Un has for the first time revealed that a larger class of 8,000 ton destroyers is currently under development. The chairman was at the time announcing a decision that future destroyers would not be equipped with forward mounted high calibre guns, which are used primarily for shore bombardment, and would instead prioritise carriage of more missiles for anti-ship operations. "It is more favourable to enhance the anti-warship and strategic attack capabilities ... 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, 8,000 tonnage destroyers in the future," he stated.

While the Choe Hyon is an 5,000 ton destroyer class, an 8,000 ton ship is expected to deploy significantly more firepower, a larger and more powerful sensor suite, and more space onboard to serve as an effective command and control facility, including accommodating larger combat information centres, additional communications centres, and accommodations for staff officers. The ability to carry more fuel, food and other supples also generally allows larger ships to carry out much longer deployments, operating over greater distances with a lower reliance on resupplying at sea. The new larger destroyer may also be able to accommodate a helicopter or launch drones, with the procurement of naval helicopters from Russia, such as the Ka-27, having been widely speculated, improving logistics and anti-submarine warfare capabilities. 

Larger destroyers generally benefit from greater compartmentalisation, more redundant systems, and more damage control equipment, allowing them to remain operational after absorbing damage in ways that smaller ships cannot. The greater space onboard larger destroyers also provides more room to incorporate new subsystems over time, potentially including additional computing systems, new radars, and directed energy weapons. While Choe Hyon class destroyers each integrate 74 vertical launch cells, it is expected that the new destroyer class will integrate over 110, rivalling the 112 launch cells on Chinese Type 055 class destroyers, which are currently widely considered to be the most capable in the world. The announcement of an 8,000 ton destroyer under development for the Korean People’s Army Navy is particularly significant when considering both the very potent capabilities demonstrated by the lighter Choe Hyon class destroyers, and the near unparalleled scale on which destroyers are to be built.

Chairman Kim earlier in March announced a highly ambitious schedule for destroyer production, under which two destroyers will be launched each year under the next Five Year Plan, allowing the fleet to field 12 destroyers near the beginning of the 2030s. This provided the first indication of plans for larger destroyer class, with all 12 destroyers announced to be either of the Choe Hyon class, or of larger more capable ships. North Korea’s destroyer programs are particularly notable when considering that the country previously fielded no blue water capabilities, with the the Choe Hyon, which was launched in April 2025, being the first which was procured in the Navy’s history. A fleet of 12 destroyers will place the Korean People’s Army Navy ahead of India, which fields 11 destroyers, France which fields ten, Russia which fields nine, and the United Kingdom which fields six, which is particularly notable since even the smaller Choe Hyon class ships integrate more firepower than the vessels of any of these countries.