DPRK top leader attends launching ceremony of new-generation destroyer

SEOUL -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) unveiled a new-generation destroyer at the Nampho Dockyard on Friday, as its top leader lauded the launching of the advanced warship as a major step to modernization for the country's naval forces, state media said Saturday.

The new-type multipurpose destroyer, which has a displacement of 5,000 tons and is equipped with "the most powerful weapons," is the first in a new class called "Choe Hyon," named after a late military activist and veteran of the DPRK armed forces, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

At the launching ceremony, Kim Jong-un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, praised the "Choe Hyon" destroyer as being able to execute multi-functional maritime combat missions, saying the destroyer has defense capabilities against aircraft, warships, submarines and ballistic missiles, and boasts weapon systems with maximized land strike capabilities like supersonic strategic cruise missiles and tactical ballistic missiles, according to the KCNA report.

Stressing the DPRK naval forces should have a reach to open seas, instead of being confined to territorial waters, as an imperative to safeguard the country's sovereignty and national interests, Kim called the launching of the new destroyer "the first real step" towards transformation and upgrading for the service and the first step towards building a strong navy, only to be followed by the second step, a development project of nuclear-powered submarines, the KCNA said.

The DPRK leader announced the newly-launched destroyer will be delivered to the navy early next year after necessary procedures including performance tests, combat capabilities assessment and comprehensive equipment operation tests, it added.

He said the country will build more "Choe Hyon" class destroyers next year, adding it also has the ambition to expedite the development of other types of cruisers and destroyers, as the relevant plan has entered its final phase of discussing the overall designs for future warships, the KCNA report said.