North Korea Commissions 2nd Destroyer Amid Trilateral US-South Korea-Japan Drills

On the Korean Peninsula, where deterrence and provocation have long been indistinguishable, North Korea has commissioned its second nuclear-capable destroyer — a vessel that once capsized before it could sail — as the United States, South Korea, and Japan conduct coordinated military exercises nearby. Kim Jong Un has framed the warship not merely as a naval asset but as an extension of his country's nuclear response architecture, embedding it within a strategic posture that speaks simultaneously to domestic audiences and to the wider world. The moment is less a rupture than a continuation — an