North Korean leader attends launching ceremony of new navy destroyer

Seoul, April 26 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has participated in a launching ceremony of a new destroyer for the country's navy, touting the military's efforts to enhance its maritime power, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Saturday.

North Korea unveiled its new 5,000-tonne multipurpose destroyer at the ceremony held at a shipyard in North Korea's western port city of Nampho on Friday, the 93rd founding anniversary of the People's Revolutionary Army, according to the report by the KCNA.

Kim attended the ceremony with his daughter, known as Ju-ae, and examined the newly-built naval warship, named Choe Hyon after a deceased North Korean anti-Japanese revolutionary fighter.

The ship, planned to be delivered to the North Korean navy early next year, is armed with weapons systems that significantly enhance its air defence, anti-ship, anti-submarine and anti-ballistic missile operations, the report said.

It can also be equipped with supersonic strategic cruise missiles and tactical ballistic missiles for precise land attack operations.

In a speech at the ceremony, Kim was quoted as saying the destroyer will build up the strength for "thoroughly defending" the maritime sovereignty of North Korea and serve as an important starting point on its road toward advanced maritime power.

Kim said the "strength to launch aggression is directly proportional to the strength to prevent aggression," stressing the need to possess a "pelagic fleet" amid a "serious threat" to North Korea's security environment, according to the KCNA.

"The most reliable means to proactively and safely manage the military threats on the Korean Peninsula, including nuclear threats, and to restrain and block any attempt by hostile overseas forces to reinforce their military presence on the peninsula, is to possess pelagic operational capabilities," Kim said.

He also pledged to construct more warships of "Choe Hyon class" and larger cruisers, as well as various types of escort ships, next year and also develop "nuclear-powered submarines" in the future.

The North Korean leader also denounced joint military drills by South Korea and the United States in March and their signing of a new joint wartime operations plan, which was revealed at a US House Armed Services Committee meeting earlier this month, Yonhap news agency reported.

"The new nuclear war plan of the US and South Korea is the clearest expression of hostile intent towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and constitutes a direct threat to regional and global peace," Kim said. The DPRK is the official name of North Korea.

"We will respond decisively to these geopolitical developments and emerging trends, and will take corresponding countermeasures."

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