North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected a newly built destroyer and oversaw a test launch of what state media called a “strategic cruise missile” this week, casting the navy’s build-up as a key part of Pyongyang’s evolving nuclear deterrent, analysts said.
The two-day visit to the 5,000-ton destroyer Choe Hyon came as North Korea was closely watching recent US military actions against Iran and ahead of US-South Korea joint military exercises due to start on March 9.
Kim called the warship a “new symbol of sea-defence capability” after it completed a shakedown cruise – its first series of sea trials – on Tuesday, and said North Korea would build “the most powerful navy” as it moved to extend nuclear-capable platforms into its surface fleet and submarines.
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“Our Navy’s forces for attacking from under and above water will grow rapidly. The arming of the Navy with nuclear weapons is making satisfactory progress,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“If any force harbours doubts about our strengthening of defensive power, that itself means they will soon become our enemy,” Kim was quoted as saying by the North’s ruling party daily Rodong Sinmun.
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