North Korea will equip its navy with nuclear weapons and build larger warships, leader Kim Jong Un said according to state media Wednesday, as Pyongyang pushes ahead with a military expansion.

The hermetic nation is under multiple sets of sanctions over a nuclear program its leaders have vowed to pursue as an essential deterrent to the United States and South Korea.

Kim made his remarks at the commissioning of the Choe Hyon — one of two 5,000-tonne class warships launched last year — in the port city of Nampho on Tuesday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

“The program of equipping the Navy with nuclear weapons is following its planned course unerringly,” Kim reportedly told the ceremony.

“This is a strategic course of crucial importance as it will make it possible to keep the nuclear force of our state ready for multifaceted and efficient operation,” he said.

North Korea previously said the Choe Hyon is equipped with the “most powerful weapons”, and Kim oversaw a cruise missile test from the vessel in April.

“Following the Choe Hyon, we will soon commission destroyer Kang Kon for operations. After that we will launch 10,000-ton strategic warships one after another,” Kim said according to a KCNA report released in English.

He added the North aimed to “build every year two surface ships, whose class is higher than the Choe Hyon” including one 10,000-tonne cruiser.

A 10,000-ton class naval ship such as the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer of which the US Navy has dozens or South Korea’s Sejong the Great-class at full load — is typically 150-170 metres (about 492-557 feet) long, roughly the size of 1.5 football pitches, and weighs as much as several thousand cars.

The South Korean navy runs more than 10 ships over 5,000 tonnes compared to the North’s two.

Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state since a 2019 summit between Kim and US counterpart Donald Trump in Hanoi collapsed over the scope of denuclearization and sanctions relief.

Meanwhile, South Korea took a soldier from the North into custody after the individual crossed the heavily fortified border this week in what is believed to be a defection, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday.

“The military secured one North Korean soldier in the central front Tuesday night, and relevant authorities are currently investigating the details,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a message to the media, according to Yonhap.

North Korea remains technically at war with the South because the neighbors’ 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty. AFP