North Korea tests new 'Aegis Destroyer' warship that can fire 'very large' nuclear-armed ballistic missiles

North Korea has unveiled a new naval weapons system referred to as the 'Aegis Destroyer' warship.

Kim Jong Un was pictured by state-run media overseeing the 'Choi Hyon', a heavily armed missile destroyer, on Friday (25 April).

The supreme leader of North Korea watched on as the 5000-tonne warship successfully carried out a 'combat application test' of its vertical launch missile systems.

TWZ reports there to be a large deck gun, 'possibly in the 127mm class', and a 'primary close-in weapon system (CIWS) towards the rear of the ship’s superstructure', as well as a number of 'vertical launch system (VLS).

North Korea has unveiled a new naval weapons system (DPRK)

The four or five VLS are made up of different sizes which allows for a 'wide range of different weapons' at hand.

As the threat of WW3 looms, a total of 74 cells means that the Choi Hyon is capable of launching long-range cruise missiles, as well as ballistic missiles.

The different weapons make the ship a major threat from both an in land and anti-ship capacity.

Named after anti-Japanese revolutionary fighter Choe Hyon, the missile test took place at the military shipbuilding dockyard of Nampho, according to Reuters.

Jong Un was heard saying on state-run television KRT that North Korea won't hesitate to defend itself from America, if needs be.

Kim Jong Un was pictured by state-run media overseeing the 'Choi Hyon' (DPRK)

"If the US continues to renew its record in the protests of military power, we will have no choice but to renew it in the exercise of strategic deterrence," he said.

The North Korean leader was pictured at the launch alongside his daughter Ju Ae, who could one day be his predecessor.

"It is important to establish a proactive and offensive defensive system on the premise of powerful attack capability," he added.

"Saying that the time has come to make a responsible option for accelerating the nuclear armament of the navy in order to defend the state and maritime sovereignty from the existing and future threat, he set forth different tasks for realising it."

The 5000-tonne warship successfully carried out a 'combat application test' of its vertical launch missile systems (DPRK)

NBC has reported that outsiders believe Russia helped North Korea develop the Choi Hyon, which comes after claims from South Korea’s spy agency that an estimated 4,700 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded while fighting alongside Russia against Ukraine.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said during a closed-door parliamentary committee briefing that North Korea had suffered 4,700 casualties, which include 600 deaths on the Russia-Ukraine battlefronts.

Lee Seong-kweun, one of the legislators, told reporters the NIS said that 2,000 injured North Korean soldiers were repatriated to North Korea by air or train between January and March.

At the start of the year, the NIS alleged that around 300 North Korean soldiers died and another 2,700 were injured, having increased the estimated casualties to 4,000 last month.