North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivered his most forceful condemnation yet of United States and South Korean military cooperation on August 18, 2025, during a highly symbolic inspection of the nation's most advanced warship. Speaking from the port city of Nampo while touring the 5,000-ton destroyer Choe Hyon, Kim characterized the ongoing Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises as "the clearest expression of a will to provoke war" and labeled the US-South Korean alliance as "openly hostile" toward North Korea.