North Korea Defies Western Expectations to Relaunch Heavily Armed Destroyer Just 22 Days After Major Accident

<p >North Korea has successfully launched its second Choe Hyon Class destroyer, the Kang Kon, during a ceremony at Rason port on June 13. The relaunch occurred just 22 days after a major accident during a prior launch attempt tipped the warship onto its side on May 22, causing serious damage to its structure. At the time Western analysts were near unanimous that the damage to the ship would prevent it from being relaunched by mid-June, which was the deadline set by the ruling Korean Workers’ Party to coincide with the plenary meeting of the party Central Committee. The state run Korean Central News Agency had reported at the time of the accident: “Due to inexperienced command and operational carelessness, the parallel movement of the bogies could not be guaranteed, resulting in the launching sled in the stern detaching first and causing the ship to capsize. The ship’s balance was destroyed due to a rupture in the hull in some sections, and the bow section was unable to detach from the keel.” Rapid recovery of the ship and its restoration for a second launch were projected to take several months. Although North Korea has proven capable of completing construction projects rapidly in both the defence and civil sectors in fractions of the time taken by most other countries, its lack of experience building and servicing large surfaces warships was expected to pose significant challenges. </p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/06/13/article_684c3c929563f8_89448009.png" title="Warship Kang Kon After Accident"></p><p >By relaunching the Kang Kon, North Korean shipyards have <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/nkorean-two-destroyers-two-months-accident" >launched two 5000 ton destroyers</a> in under three months, with the first of the two the Choi Hyon, having been <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/nkorea-frigate-54pct-firepower-destroyer-choi-hyon" >launched</a> in April. This is considered a particularly outstanding achievement when considering that before 2025, the country’s shipyards had laid down no surface combat ships even a third the size of the two new destroyers, with the only surface combat ships larger than a corvette in size being small 1600 ton frigates built at the Najin Shipyard in the 1970s. The two Choi Hyon Class destroyers will upon entering service revolutionise the capabilities of the Korean People’s Army Navy, and provide the service with its first ocean going surface combatants. There is a significant possibility that further ships of the class will be constructed, possibly as enhanced or enlarged variants, or that the class will serve as a stepping stone as industry prepares to build much larger warships. Choi Hyon Class destroyers each integrate 74 vertical launch cells each, including 20 larger cells capable of carrying ballistic missiles, giving the ships the most firepower relative to their size of any in the world. The U.S. Navy’s delayed 7,300 ton Constellation Class frigates, for example, integrate just 32 cells. The first Choi Hyon Class ship has <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/nkorea-testfires-full-spectrum-weaponry-destroyer" target="_blank">demonstrated</a> the ability to launch and guide a wide range of weapons, including long range surface-to-air missiles, land attack cruise missiles, and high speed anti-ship cruise missiles, reflecting major advances made by the North Korean defence sector since the late 2018s in a range of missile technology areas.</p>