Click to see full-size image. (The Korean Central News Agency)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended a ceremony for the launch of a “new multipurpose destroyer,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on April 26.
The launch took place a day earlier at the military shipbuilding dockyard of Nampho, and marked a new era of the “great Kim Jong Un-style fleet building,” the state-run news agency said quoting Vice-Admiral Pak Kwang Sop.
The ship was graded as the “Choe Hyon-class” named after anti-Japanese revolutionary fighter Choe Hyon, the agency added.
The 5,000-tonne warship was equipped with the “most powerful weapons” and built “within 400-odd days perfectly with our own strength and technology,” Jo Chun Ryong, a secretary in the country’s ruling Workers’ Party, said, according to the agency.
In a speech at the event, Kim revealed that the warship will carry “anti-aircraft, anti-ship, anti-submarine and anti-ballistic missile capabilities,” as well as nuclear-armed missiles such as “supersonic strategic cruise missiles and tactical ballistic missiles.”
The leader also said that “the navy’s ability to directly intervene in ground operations has been enhanced” through the ship’s construction, meaning it can “maximize land strike operation capabilities.”
“Even enemies who boast of naval and ship superiority cannot ignore [our new] ships,” he added.
However, the leader noted that the warship won’t be delivered to the navy until “early next year” and will now undergo a series of performance and operation tests.
The Choe Hyon-class destroyer will patrol North Korea’s “coastal defense zone waters” and “the waters of middle demarcation lines” with other countries, according to Kim.
Photos released by KCNA revealed that the warship was equipped with three vertical launching systems (VLS) for at least four different types of missiles. The worship also appeared to be equipped with an unidentified missile-armed close-in weapon system.
Click to see full-size image. (The Korean Central News Agency)
Click to see full-size image. (The Korean Central News Agency)
During the same speech, Kim accused the United States and South Korea of “expanding and strengthening political and military provocations against us” that “ignore our security concerns.”
He also accused the two of conducting “hostile” joint military drills “of an invasive nature” while establishing a new “wartime operational plan” to “integrate” nuclear weapons with the forces of South Korea.
“Our country’s security environment is now very serious, and the situation demands that we make revolutionary and rapid changes in existing military theory and practice and accelerate the expansion of our nuclear armament,” Kim said.
“The new U.S.-ROK nuclear war plan is the clearest expression of war intentions against the DPRK and a direct threat to peace and security in the region and the world,” he added.
He also reiterated a warning of upcoming nuke-related actions which he said he ordered his sister to deliver via KCNA last month, noting that “if the U.S. continues to break new records with its military demonstrations, we too will have no choice but to set new records with demonstrations of our strategic deterrence capabilities.”
North Korea must convince adversaries that it possesses “super-powerful preemptive strike capabilities” and the ability to invade them, Kim said, in order to deter them from invading or attacking.
Tensions have been building up on the Korean Peninsula for a few months now. North Korea has conducted multiple weapon tests since the start of the year. Meanwhile, the military of South Korea continues to carry out joint military drills with the U.S.
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counting 8 rafts.
anyone not going down witht he ship is a south korean!