North Korea’s Kim Jong Un observed launches of two cruise missiles and three anti-ship missiles from his prized new warship, the 5,000-ton-class destroyer Choe Hyon, state media claimed Tuesday. 

The cruise missiles flew for more than two hours and the anti-ship missiles for more than 30 minutes along pre-set trajectories over the country’s western seas before accurately striking their targets on Sunday, according to North Korea’s official newspaper Rodong Sinmun. 

One image released by the Korean Central News Agency showed Kim standing next to North Korean officials while watching a projectile fly away from the ship.  

Kim has hailed the development of the Choe Hyon, which was first unveiled in April 2025, as a major step toward expanding the operational reach and preemptive strike capabilities of his military.

NORTH KOREA FIRES MISSILES TOWARD SEA AFTER RIDICULING SOUTH'S HOPES FOR BETTER TIES

State media claim the warship is designed to carry a range of systems, including anti-air and anti-ship weapons as well as nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles. South Korean officials and experts say the vessel was likely built with Russian assistance amid deepening military ties, but some experts question whether it’s ready for active service, The Associated Press reported. 

After Sunday’s tests, Kim said his government remained focused on the "limitless expansion" of its nuclear forces and issued unspecified new tasks to sharpen the country’s nuclear attack and rapid-response capabilities. He also reviewed plans for the weapons systems for his third and fourth destroyers currently being built, Rodong Sinmun claimed. 

NORTH KOREA RELAUNCHES WARSHIP THAT SUFFERED EMBARRASSING FAILURE DURING INITIAL LAUNCH

North Korea unveiled a second destroyer of the same class in May last year – the Kang Kon -- but it was damaged during a botched launch at the northern port of Chongjin. It later was relaunched in June following repairs. 

State media says a third destroyer under construction at the Nampo shipyard on the country’s western coast is expected to be completed by the ruling Workers’ Party’s founding anniversary in October, according to the AP.

North Korea also conducted a series of tests last week that state media said involved various new weapons systems, including ballistic missiles armed with cluster-bomb warheads, while its senior officials issued statements ridiculing South Korean hopes for warmer relations. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea Wednesday in its second launch event in two days, South Korea’s military said, hours after a senior North Korean official released crude insults against Seoul’s hopes for warmer relations.

South Korea's joint chiefs of staff said several missiles lifted off from North Korea’s eastern coastal Wonsan area on Wednesday morning and flew about 240 kilometers (150 miles) each in a direction toward the North’s eastern waters. It said an additional North Korean ballistic missile fired later Wednesday traveled more than 700 kilometers (435 miles) off the North's east coast.

South Korea's military said it maintains a readiness to repel any provocations by North Korea under a solid military alliance with the United States. It earlier said it detected the launch of an unidentified projectile from North Korea’s capital region Tuesday.

South Korean media reported the projectile, also likely a ballistic missile, disappeared from South Korean military radars after displaying an abnormal development in the initial launch stage. This indicated the launch ended in failure, according to the reports.

'CREDIBLE INTELLIGENCE' REVEALS NORTH KOREA'S SUCCESSOR TO KIM JONG UN, SOUTH KOREA SAYS
 

The back-to-back launches came after North Korea made it clear that it has no intention of improving ties with South Korea, whose liberal government has steadfastly expressed its hopes to restore long-dormant dialogue.

On Tuesday night, Jang Kum Chol, first vice minister at Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry, said South Korea would always remain North Korea's "most hostile enemy state." He derided South Korea as "world-startling fools" engaged in wishful thinking over a recent statement by Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

After South Korean President Lee Jae Myung expressed regret over alleged civilian drone flights into North Korea, Kim Yo Jong late Monday praised him for what she called honesty and courage, but reiterated a threat to retaliate if such flights recur. South Korean officials responded by describing Kim Yo Jong’s statement as meaningful progress in relations.

NORTH KOREAN DICTATOR SAYS GOVERNMENT WILL KEEP CEMENTING NATION'S 'IRREVERSIBLE STATUS AS A NUCLEAR POWER'
 

Jang said her statement was intended as a warning. He cited Kim Yo Jong as calling South Korea "the dogs affected by mange that blindly bark to the tune of neighboring dogs" as she criticized it for recently co-sponsoring a U.N. resolution on the North’s purported human rights violations.

North Korea has refused to return to talks with South Korea and the U.S. and pushed to expand its nuclear arsenal since Kim Jong Un’s diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019. North Korea has instead sought to strengthen ties with Russia, China and other countries embroiled in confrontations with the U.S. Last September, Kim Jong Un traveled to Beijing to attend a military parade alongside other foreign leaders and held his first summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in six years.

North Korea’s state media said Wednesday that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit North Korea on Thursday for a two-day trip.

NORTH KOREA TESTS SOLID-FUEL MISSILE ENGINE AS KIM BOOSTS THREAT TO US MAINLAND
 

Earlier this week, North Korea said Kim Jong Un had observed a test of an upgraded solid-fuel engine for weapons and called it a significant development boosting his country’s strategic military arsenal.

Missiles with built-in solid propellants are easier to move and conceal their launches than liquid-fuel weapons, which in general must be fueled before liftoff and cannot last long.

South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Monday the engine test was likely related to an effort to build a more powerful solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that can carry multiple nuclear warheads, according to lawmakers who attended the meeting.

Experts say North Korea wants multi-warhead missiles to penetrate U.S. missile defenses, but they doubt Pyongyang has mastered the technology needed to acquire such a weapon.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) thinks that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's daughter has been lined up to be her father's eventual successor, lawmakers noted on Monday, according to Reuters.

The NIS indicated to lawmakers that its analysis stems from what it characterized as "credible intelligence" that it had gathered, Reuters reported, citing briefings by ruling and opposition party members following a closed-door parliamentary meeting.

Video footage posted last month showed Kim and his daughter on a tank.

KIM JONG UN APPEARS WITH TEENAGE DAUGHTER AT LIVE-FIRE ROCKET TEST IN NORTH KOREA

The South Korean agency indicated that the scene of the girl driving a tank was meant to emphasize her supposed military aptitude and counter doubts concerning a female successor, lawmakers noted, according to the outlet.

North Korean state-run media KCNA published photos of the North Korean leader and his daughter with a tank last month, following prior images of the girl utilizing firearms, Reuters reported.

The daughter is thought to be about 13 years old and named Ju Ae.

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The outlet reported that ruling Democratic Party lawmaker Park Sun-won indicated that the scenes are meant to pay "homage" to the North Korean leader's military appearances years ago when he was being set up to succeed his father as regime leader.

​Korea Institute for National Unification analyst Hong Min said the tank scene is not enough to determine that she has been established as her father's successor, pointing out that she appeared with her father rather than independently, unlike her father's independent military appearances as he was being groomed to take the helm.

NORTH KOREA TESTS SOLID-FUEL MISSILE ENGINE AS KIM BOOSTS THREAT TO US MAINLAND

North Korea is one of the world's only nuclear-armed nations.

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s vast missile system is the brainchild of the U.S.-designated state-sponsor of terrorism, the communist North Korea regime, which works hand in glove with Iran, according to one of the world’s leading experts on the Iran-North Korea strategic alliance.

"The missile launched at Diego Garcia was a Musudan. The Iranians bought 19 of these from the North Koreans and took delivery in 2005. They have had this capability since 2005 — and this is no ‘secret weapon,'" Bruce Bechtol, who co-authored with Anthony Celso the groundbreaking book "Rogue Allies: The Strategic Partnership Between Iran and North Korea," told Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital reported last week that Iran significantly escalated its war effort against the U.S. with its launch of two intermediate-range ballistic missiles toward Diego Garcia—roughly 2,500 miles from Iran.

TRUMP PROVEN RIGHT ON IRAN'S LONG-RANGE MISSILE CAPABILITY AS REGIME TARGETS US-UK BASE, EXPERTS SAY

Bechtol said, "The most important threat from Iran as the war with the United States and Israel has evolved has been the ballistic missiles, launched not only at U.S. facilities and Israeli cities, but also at neighboring Islamic countries. Thus, it is important to consider this capability and where Iran got it."

He said, "The short-range ballistic missiles that Iran has launched at key U.S. facilities and at neighboring Arab states include a key system – the 'QIAM.' The QIAM was developed and improved with North Korean assistance… North Korea has proliferated a lot to Iran that we are seeing right now in the war."

The joint U.S.-Israeli war against Iran’s regime, the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism, according to the U.S. State Department, has entered its fifth week.

Bechtol, who is a professor of political science in the Department of Security Studies at Angelo State University in Texas, noted that, according to the Wisconsin Project, North Korea had constructed a large missile test facility at Emamshahr, a city in the Fars Province in Iran, and a tracking facility at Tabas in South Khorasan province.

He said North Korea aided Iran with crucial technology "for targets farther away from Iran."

"The North Koreans proliferated around 150 No Dong systems to Iran in the late 1990s. The Iranians were apparently very happy with the missiles the North Koreans provided them, and, following the earlier precedent of the Scud C factory, contracted with Pyongyang to build a No Dong facility in Iran."

AFTER THE STRIKES, HOW WOULD THE US SECURE IRAN’S ENRICHED URANIUM?

Bechtol continued, "The Iranians called this ‘new’ missile the Shahab-3. The Shahab-3 is almost an exact copy of the No Dong. Once the Shahab-3 was up and running, the North Koreans moved forward with the Iranians in improving its range and lethality."

He said, "With assistance from the North Koreans, the Iranians were then able to produce (at the No Dong facility) the Emad and the Ghadr. The Emad has a range of 1,750 kilometers (approx 1,087 miles) and the Ghadr has a range of 1,950 kilometers (approximately 1,212 miles.) The Iranians have used these two systems to target not only Israel, but their Arab neighbors (including U.S. bases located in these countries) throughout the ongoing first stages of this conflict."

Bechtol said the North Koreans spawned an Iranian missile warhead that weighs a ton and a half to two tons on the powerful Khorramshahr-4. "There is another system capable of hitting Israel that has been even more lethal than any of the systems described thus far. This system is called the ‘Khorramshahr,’ and the fourth version of this system, appropriately called the ‘Khorramshahr-4,’ has been proven to carry a warhead larger than any other in Iran’s missile inventory, armed with what appears to be cluster munitions," he said.

He described the strategic partnership, noting: "North Korea is the seller and Iran is the buyer. North Korea proliferates weapons systems, technology, parts and components, technicians, engineers and specialists and military capabilities (such as the building of underground facilities) to Iran. Iran pays North Korea with cash and oil. Simple as that."

Bechtol said the only way to stop this is through sanctions enforcement against North Korea. "The sanctions that are needed are already on the books. But the USA and our key allies need to robustly enforce them. We need to go after banks, front companies and cyber entities in order to squeeze the money and contain or destroy the supply chain."

He said, "More emphasis needs to be placed, and more action needs to be taken using the Proliferation Security Initiative — an underused aspect of preventing North Korea's arms from flowing to rogue nations and terrorist groups.  If you cut off the supply chain, you cut off the proliferation."

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un oversaw a test of a new high-thrust solid-fuel rocket engine, according to state media, working on weapons capable of striking the U.S. mainland.

The test, reported Sunday by KCNA, involved an engine made with carbon-fiber materials and was described as part of a new five-year defense plan to upgrade the country’s "strategic strike" capabilities.

Kim said the test had "great significance in putting the country’s strategic military muscle on the highest level," according to KCNA.

The engine reportedly produced 2,500 kilonewtons of thrust, higher than a similar engine it tested last year. Analysts say such engines could support more mobile or compact long-range missiles.

NORTH KOREAN DICTATOR SAYS GOVERNMENT WILL KEEP CEMENTING NATION'S 'IRREVERSIBLE STATUS AS A NUCLEAR POWER'

North Korea’s report on the latest test could be "bluffing" as it did not disclose some key information like the engine’s total combustion time, said Lee Choon Geun, an honorary research fellow at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute.

Solid-fuel systems are significant because they can be launched more quickly and with less warning than older liquid-fuel missiles, making them harder to detect and potentially more survivable in combat.

Pyongyang still faces major technical barriers before fielding a fully reliable intercontinental ballistic missile, especially ensuring a warhead can survive atmospheric reentry.

KIM JONG UN CALLS SOUTH KOREA ‘MOST HOSTILE ENEMY,’ SAYS NORTH COULD ‘COMPLETELY DESTROY’ IT

Kim’s latest military activities also included inspections of special operations training and tests of a new main battle tank, underscoring a broader push to modernize both North Korea’s missile program and conventional forces, according to KCNA.

Kim claimed the tank’s protection system could defeat nearly all existing anti-tank weapons, though such assertions could not be independently verified, Reuters reported.

The developments fit a wider pattern of stepped-up military activity by Pyongyang. Since the collapse of Kim’s diplomacy with President Donald Trump in 2019, North Korea has accelerated work on nuclear and missile systems despite sanctions, while keeping open the possibility of talks if Washington drops demands for denuclearization first.

KIM JONG UN APPEARS WITH TEENAGE DAUGHTER AT LIVE-FIRE ROCKET TEST IN NORTH KOREA

At a rare ruling party congress held in February, Kim unveiled a new five-year plan that reaffirmed continued development of nuclear weapons, while calling for a broad upgrade of the country’s military capabilities.

Analysts and regional governments also pointed to new tank and combined-arms drills as part of Pyongyang’s effort to adapt its military doctrine to modern warfare, drawing lessons from recent conflicts and emphasizing integration across ground and missile forces.

South Korea and the United States say they are closely monitoring North Korea’s weapons developments.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

North Korean's Kim Jong Un pledged to solidify his nation's nuclear status while keeping a hard-line position regarding South Korea, which he referred to as the "most hostile" state, state media indicated Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.

In a speech Monday to Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament, Kim accused the United States of global "state terrorism and aggression," in an apparent reference to the war in the Middle East, and said North Korea will play a more forceful role in a united front against Washington amid rising anti-American sentiment.

The AP reported that the North Korean official indicated that the matter of whether opponents "choose confrontation or peaceful coexistence is up to them, and we are prepared to respond to any choice."

KIM JONG UN APPEARS WITH TEENAGE DAUGHTER AT LIVE-FIRE ROCKET TEST IN NORTH KOREA

"The dignity of the nation, its national interest and its ultimate victory can only be guaranteed by the strongest of power," Kim stated, according to the AP. "The government of our republic will continue to consolidate our absolutely irreversible status as a nuclear power and will aggressively wage a struggle against hostile forces to crush their (anti-North Korean) provocations and schemes."

KIM JONG UN CALLS SOUTH KOREA ‘MOST HOSTILE ENEMY,’ SAYS NORTH COULD ‘COMPLETELY DESTROY’ IT

The 2026 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community states, "North Korea remains committed to expanding its strategic weapons programs, including missiles and nuclear warheads, and to solidifying its deterrent capability." 

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The U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran more than three weeks ago in a bid to prevent the Islamic Republic from potentially joining the ranks of other nations that possess nuclear weapons.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watched a live-fire test of multiple rocket launch systems alongside his teenage daughter Saturday, as the regime escalates weapons demonstrations amid joint U.S.–South Korea military exercises, state media reported.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim oversaw a strike drill involving twelve 600mm ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers along North Korea’s east coast, according to The Associated Press.

South Korea’s military said it detected about 10 ballistic missiles launched from an area near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

KIM JONG UN APPEARS WITH DAUGHTER AT MAUSOLEUM, FUELING SUCCESSION SPECULATION

South Korea’s National Security Council condemned the launches as a provocation and said they violated United Nations Security Council resolutions that prohibit North Korea from conducting ballistic missile tests, The Associated Press reported.

Kim said the drill was meant to demonstrate the destructive capability of the country’s tactical nuclear forces, according to state media.

"If this weapon is used, the opponent’s military infrastructure within its striking range can never survive," Kim said.

KIM JONG UN CALLS SOUTH KOREA ‘MOST HOSTILE ENEMY,’ SAYS NORTH COULD ‘COMPLETELY DESTROY’ IT

Photos released by state media showed Kim Jong Un and his daughter — believed to be named Kim Ju Ae, about 13 or 14 years old — walking near launch trucks, The Associated Press reported.

Kim Ju Ae has appeared alongside her father at numerous military events, missile tests and parades since late 2022, fueling speculation that Kim Jong Un may be positioning her as a future successor.

NORTH KOREA’S KIM JONG UN RE-ELECTED AS RULING PARTY LEADER

The live-fire test followed after the U.S. and South Korea began their annual military drills earlier this week, which North Korea routinely condemns as rehearsals for an invasion. 

Last month, Kim Jong Un reportedly gave his teenage daughter a leadership role in the regime’s powerful "Missile Administration," the body that oversees Pyongyang’s nuclear forces.

The Associated Press and Fox News Digital's Emma Bussey contributed to this report.