North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un oversees artillery, missile tests

Pyongyang, June 26 (IANS) North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un has overseen tests of multiple firepower systems in a bid to modernise the country’s artillery and missile forces, the official Korean Central News Agency said Friday.

The tests, on Thursday, involved the upgraded 240 mm-calibre 24-tubular multiple rocket launcher system, tactical ballistic missile, and 155mm self-propelled gun-howitzer shells with an extended firing range, the report said.

The upgraded rocket launcher system employs an automated firepower system and a self-steered, precise guidance system, with an extended firing range of 90 km. The tactical ballistic missile is equipped with a special mission warhead designed to inflict fatal damage on major enemy targets, including airfields, ports and power facilities, Xinhua news agency reported.

The test of the gun-howitzer shells with an extended firing range of 65 km is also “of great military significance”, it added.

Kim, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and President of the State Affairs of the DPRK, said the tests marked an important occasion as they proved what he called the “great technological progress” in bringing about a change in the firepower posture of the country’s armed forces and developing weapon systems on an automatic, long-range and ultra-precision basis.

The country’s self-defence policy is not merely for enhancing defensive capabilities, but also “for further strengthening the deadly and destructive offensive posture to make no enemy dare to confront,” Kim said, calling it “a defensive concept in the army-building and military action practice”.

On Tuesday, Kim attended a commissioning ceremony of its new-type multi-mission destroyer Choe Hyon at Nampho Port, the Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday.

The warship was formally placed into service of the country’s navy after concluding 14-month trial procedures for assessing its operational capabilities, said the report.

The change in the DPRK’s navy does not simply mean larger size of vessels or technological advancement of ship-borne equipment, Kim was quoted as saying.

The most important change and the most significant progress is that the navy “has taken a different position, a different mission and a different area of waters its action covers, and accordingly it will achieve a different result,” he added.

The country’s navy is “rising into a full-fledged service equipped with strategic means,” Kim said.

–IANS

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