According to the state-run [North] Korean Central News Agency, the reclusive country's leader Kim Jong-un attended a commissioning ceremony for the Choe Hyon held in Nampo the previous day, expressing expectations that his country's naval capabilities would be strengthened to what he described as "admirable beyond imagination."
The Choe Hyon, named after a comrade of regime founder Kim Il Sung during his days as a partisan fighter, went through several tests in recent months after the "new-type multi-mission" destroyer, which is believed to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons, was first unveiled in April last year.
KCNA quoted Kim as saying that the tests with "satisfying results" confirmed the destroyer's combat capabilities as the "most perfect."
Kim urged the country to push ahead with plans to build at least two warships of the Choe Hyon class or higher each year over the next five years, along with frigates and special-purpose vessels armed with underwater weapons. He also stressed that building modern naval bases had become an "urgent and essential task."
But he added that further analysis is needed to determine how well it could withstand modern warfare involving precision strikes and drone attacks.
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