North Korea commissions new nuclear-armed warship Choe Hyon
North Korea has commissioned its new nuclear-armed warship Choe Hyon as Pyongyang pursues its plan to protect the nation's "maritime sovereignty".
Speaking on Tuesday at the commissioning ceremony of the destroyer at Nampho port, North Korea leader Kim Jong-un said Pyongyang's nuclear armament program is proceeding as planned.
"The program of equipping the Navy with nuclear weapons is following its planned course unerringly," Kim said at the ceremony.
He pointed out that the nuclear arming of the fleet would keep the country’s forces ready for “multifaceted and efficient operation”, adding that, North Korea's nuclear-armed 5,000-tonne warship Choe Hyon is fitted with some of the “most powerful weapons”.
"This is a strategic course of crucial importance as it will make it possible to keep the nuclear force of our state ready for multifaceted and efficient operation," he said.
North Korea’s navy is evolving from a coastal defense force into a full-fledged service equipped with strategic nuclear capabilities, Kim said.
Arming the navy with nuclear weapons would "constitute a radical change in defending our maritime sovereignty, something that we have not achieved for half a century," Kim added.
He said the next phase of the armament development plan includes the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine and setting five-year goals that include intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of being launched from underwater.
North Korea's leader said the plan also includes building larger warships.
He pledged to soon commission another large destroyer, the Kang Kon, and to begin launching 10,000-tonne-class strategic warships.
He said Pyongyang plans to continue to develop its nuclear and missile technology to expand its military capabilities despite the multiple sets of heavy international sanctions slapped on his nation.
Kim defines North Korea as an “irreversible” nuclear state.
He says Pyongyang's armament development program is a deterrence against the United States and its regional allies, namely, Japan and south Korea, launching a possible land invasion in an attempt to topple the Chinese-allied government.
Washington and Pyongyang remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
North Korea has warned that the continued military provocations by South Korea and the United States push the Korean Peninsula "to the brink of a nuclear war."
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