U.S. Pacific Bases Face New Threat as North Korea Demonstrates Destroyer’s Long Range Strike Capability

The Korean People’s Army Navy has made a live fire demonstration of the first Choe Hyon class destroyer’s long range land attack capability near the country’s west coast, in an exercise combining strategic cruise missile launches with anti-ship weapons in a coordinated strike scenario. The exercise appears to have been designed to validate the new destroyer class’ integrated combat systems, as well as crew performance. Long range land attack cruise missile capabilities are relatively rare among the navies of the world, with only the United States, United Kingdom and Russia having ever deployed ships to launch such attacks in wartime situations. 

Although Choe Hyon class destroyers have widely been assessed by analysts to pose serious challenges to U.S. maritime dominance in the Pacific due to their highly advanced anti-ship capabilities, their land attack capabilities also have significant potential to threaten U.S. and allied military bases and strategic targets across much of the region. The strike capabilities of Choe Hyon class ships are expected to be highly complementary to the rapid expansion and modernisation of North Korea’s ground-based ballistic and cruise missile arsenals, as the country’s defence leadership continues to highly value the ability to disrupt U.S. logistics and target key hubs of its Pacific presence. The first two Choe Hyon class destroyers were launched in 2025, with destroyer production in North Korea expected to continue at rates of two per year, exceeding that of the United States. 

Choe Hyon class destroyers each integrate 74 vertical launch cells, compared to 96 on the latest variants of U.S. Navy Alreigh Burke class, although the gap is expected to narrow considerably on subsequent North Korean destroyers, as their main guns will be replaced by additional missile launch cells. Several cells are larger in diameter, and are intended to integrate ballistic missiles tipped with nuclear weapons, allowing each destroyer to launch mixed salvoes of ballistic and cruise missiles with both nuclear and conventional warheads to target U.S. bases. North Korea’s progress in developing hypersonic glide vehicles for its missiles has raised the possibility of its destroyers’ missile strike capabilities improving significantly further in future. 

The Choe Hyon class destroyer program appears to mark the beginning of efforts to develop a blue water naval capability, with Chairman of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party Kim Jong Un having in March confirmed that a larger 8,000 ton destroyer class is currently under development, and represents part of the procurement of 10 additional destroyers scheduled over the next five years. It also follows the unveiling of the country’s first nuclear powered submarine in December 2025. These investments raise the possibility of destroyers and long range submarines eventually being able to operate in the Mid and Eastern Pacific, potentially placing U.S. bases not only in Hawaii, but also on the U.S. mainland, within strike range of cruise missiles and medium range ballistic missiles.