North Korean leader again oversees test-firing of missiles from naval destroyer

SEOUL, April 14 (AJP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected again the test-firing of missiles from a naval destroyer, state media reported Tuesday.

"Two strategic cruise missiles and three anti-warship missiles were test-fired" last Sunday from the 5,000-ton multipurpose destroyer Choe Hyun to assess its "operational efficiency," with Kim observing it, according to the state-run [North] Korean Central News Agency.

Kim's latest inspection of the destroyer comes about a month after he observed similar tests on March 4 and March 10.

They flew along preset trajectories over the West Sea, hitting their targets with "ultra-precise" accuracy.

Kim was quoted as expressing "great satisfaction over the fact that the preparedness of our army's strategic action has been strengthened in a qualitative way with various achievements recently made in the field of defense science."

Stressing it as the country's "most important priority," he urged officials to "steadily and unlimitedly bolster up the powerful and reliable nuclear war deterrent."

"Kim's remarks on strengthening the country's 'strategic and tactical attack capability' appear to be an attempt to show off the North's nuclear weapons, which could be mounted on any weapons system," said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University's Institute for Far Eastern Studies.

"Strategic cruise missiles are a type of weapons for which nuclear warheads are easier to miniaturize. Tactical nuclear weapons mounted on cruise missiles launched from a destroyer could pose a significant threat to South Korea," he warned.

The Choe Hyon, named after a comrade of regime founder Kim Il Sung during his days as a partisan fighter, was first unveiled in April last year. The destroyer is believed to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons, with North Korea building another vessel expected to be completed by early October.