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(LONDON) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly oversaw the test of a supersonic cruise missile fired from a new battleship — the destroyer Choe Hyon — this week, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
In a report published on Wednesday, KCNA said the first test firing of the Choe Hyon’s weapons systems were conducted on Monday and Tuesday. The platforms tested included a supersonic cruise missile, a strategic cruise missile, an anti-aircraft missile and a 127mm shipboard automatic gun.
Kim toured the vessel and observed the weapons tests, KCNA reported. The North Korean leader said that “it is important to establish a proactive and aggressive defence system on the premise of powerful attack capability,” KCNA wrote.
Kim also said there was a need for “accelerating the nuclearization of the navy,” KCNA said.
The 5,000-ton destroyer was unveiled last week. During a ceremony to launch the vessel at the port of Nampo on the country’s western coast, Kim said the ship’s construction represented “a breakthrough” in North Korea’s naval modernization.
Kim also said he “intends to build a blue-water operational fleet” — meaning a force capable of operating in open ocean rather than solely in the coastal waters around the Korean Peninsula.
The launch of the Choe Hyon comes as North Korea — which has traditionally lagged behind its neighbor and rival South Korea in terms of naval technology — deepens military cooperation with Russia, amid the latter’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent standoff with the West.
U.S., Ukrainian and South Korean officials have warned that Moscow may repay Pyongyang’s support for its invasion — which over three years of war has graduated from ammunition supply to the deployment of frontline troops — by sharing military technology.
North Korea has also continued and expanded its ballistic missile testing program, intended to enhance its nuclear strike capabilities.
In March, Pyongyang fired a series of short-range ballistic missiles days after the conclusion of U.S.-South Korean military drills that Pyongyang said it considered an invasion rehearsal.
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