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SEOUL, July 5 (Reuters)\u00a0\u2013\u00a0North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observed the test firing of a strategic cruise missile and evaluations of anti-ship, anti-submarine and air defense systems aboard the naval destroye<\/a>r Kang Kon, state media KCNA reported on Sunday.<\/p>\n The tests were conducted on Friday as part of an assessment of the newly built warship\u2019s combat systems. They included checks of target-detection and information-processing capabilities, integrated firepower systems, naval guns, automatic cannons and electronic warfare equipment, KCNA said.<\/p>\n Kim was briefed on the vessel\u2019s weapons evaluation program before watching the strategic cruise missile launch and other tests, according to the report.<\/p>\n KCNA said Kim hailed recent advances in weapons development and called for further efforts to expand North Korea\u2019s war deterrence and combat capabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n He ordered officials to complete trials of the Kang Kon<\/a> and commission the destroyer into naval service within two months, KCNA said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Late last month, North Korea\u00a0commissioned\u00a0the 5,000-ton destroyer Choe Hyon and announced plans to deploy the Kang Kon, a vessel of the same class, as part of a broader naval modernisation drive.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kim has called for the construction of two warships of the class every year over the next five years and also outlined\u00a0plans<\/a>\u00a0for larger 10,000-ton warships.<\/p>\n The Kang Kon was repaired last year after\u00a0partially capsizing<\/a>\u00a0during a launch ceremony.\u00a0<\/p>\n North Korea has increasingly highlighted naval development as it seeks to bolster what Kim has described as the weakest branch of its armed forces.<\/p>\n (Reporting by Kyu-seok Shim; Editing by David Gregorio)<\/p>\n (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026.<\/p>\n Editorial Standards<\/a> \u00b7 Corrections<\/a> \u00b7 About gCaptain<\/a><\/p>\n This article contains reporting from Reuters, published under license.<\/p>\n \t\t Sign up for gCaptain\u2019s newsletter and never miss an update<\/p>\n \u2014 trusted by our 104,783 members<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL, July 5 (Reuters)\u00a0\u2013\u00a0North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observed the test firing of a strategic cruise missile…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[141,31,34,25980],"class_list":["post-78225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-north-korea","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-korea","tag-north-korea","tag-warships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"logo\"\/](\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/wp-content\/themes\/gCaptain-Theme\/assets\/images\/gcaptain-new-gray-logo.svg\"){kind=logo}
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