North Korean leader attends launching ceremony of new naval destroyer
South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as saying on April 26 that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended the launching ceremony of a new destroyer for the country's navy and praised the military's efforts to strengthen its maritime power.
North Korea unveiled a new 5,000-ton multipurpose destroyer at a ceremony held at a shipyard in the western port city of Nampho on April 25, marking the 93rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Revolutionary Army, KCNA reported.
The destroyer will contribute to strengthening the power to “thoroughly defend” North Korea’s maritime sovereignty and serve as an important starting point on the path to developing the country’s advanced maritime power, Kim Jong-un said, KCNA reported.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that KCNA quoted Jo Chun Ryong, a secretary of the ruling Workers' Party, as saying that the new 5,000-ton warship that North Korea has just launched is described as having "Kim Jong-un's style", with the "most powerful" weapons system and was built "within more than 400 days entirely with our own strength and technology".
In a speech at the launching ceremony, reported by KCNA, leader Kim Jong-un said the ship would be handed over to the navy and officially put into service early next year. The ceremony marked the beginning of a new era in “fleet building in the style of great leader Kim Jong-un,” Vice Admiral Pak Kwang Sop was quoted by KCNA as saying. The report also said the ship was classified as a “Choe Hyon”-class ship, named after anti-Japanese revolutionary fighter Choe Hyon.
Earlier this month, Reuters news agency reported, citing satellite imagery analysis, that North Korea's new class of warships is capable of carrying dozens of vertical launch tubes (VLS), serving to deploy the types of missiles that the country's military has developed.
Kim also stressed that a powerful preemptive strike capability is “the most convincing war deterrent,” and that there is no limit to the scale of such attacks. “Currently, the security environment of our country is extremely severe,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
The North Korean leader also thanked the workers and engineers who built the new destroyer, calling it a correct move in line with the party's policy of strengthening the navy.
Mr. Kim also accused the US of regularly deploying strategic assets on the Korean peninsula.
According to the South Korean Defense Ministry, B-1B strategic bombers participated in joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States earlier this month, along with fighter jets.
In recent years, B-1Bs have frequently appeared in joint military exercises. North Korea has long denounced these exercises as war rehearsals, while Seoul insists they are purely defensive in nature.