Pyongyang, June 13 (KCNA) -- The respected
Comrade Kim Jong Un made a speech at a ceremony of launching a
destroyer of the Navy of the Korean People's Army on June 12.
The full text of the speech is as follows:
Workers, scientists, technicians and
officials in the shipbuilding industry and several other sectors, who are
working with devotion on the major front of the warship-building industry with
a far-reaching ambition of building a military giant,
Officers and men of the Navy of the Korean
People's Army, who are boundlessly loyal to their mission of defending the
territorial waters, and cadets of the naval university,
Family members of the employees of the
shipyards and ship repair yards, who are devoting unknown efforts to the
patriotic work of increasing our national strength,
Comrades,
The second new-type destroyer, convincing
proof of the rapid transformation of our Navy, has assumed its sturdy
appearance and greeted the day when it will get its name.
No one will doubt, I think, the rapid
transformation of our Navy as they have witnessed the launching of another
new-type destroyer less than two months after a similar event at the Nampho
Shipyard.
As I made it clear at Nampho last April, they
will deeply feel that a new era of modernization of our Navy has now arrived
and is making an uninterrupted, steady headway.
Despite the persisting difficulties and
obstacles, our gigantic warship building projects to build an advanced naval
capability are being promoted most correctly and quickly.
Of course, we felt panic-stricken in front of
the unexpected and ridiculous accident caused while launching this destroyer in
Chongjin last month, but our crucial journey for increasing the combat
capability of our Navy has never been delayed.
The challenge was created not by any failure
or setback that we may face or experience unavoidably in the course of advance,
but by sheer irresponsibility, carelessness and other factors. This was
something that must never occur, but it simply did not mean a loss for us, I
think.
We judged the accident not as a simple
mistake but as a never-to-be-forgiven, serious criminal act that lowered the
dignity and self-respect of our state in a moment, and investigated the root
cause of the accident in a comprehensive way. In the course of this, we
discovered to the last one the dangerous factors that had to be removed without
fail, took relevant measures, and ensured that rapid restoration of the vessel
was conducted at lightning speed, regarding it as an important political task.
As a result, the vessel was set on a safe
posture and put to sea just over two weeks after the accident had taken place;
and today its complete restoration has been rounded off as planned in the
lead-up to a plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee.
I believe that the course of restoring the
destroyer was an epochal occasion for making those responsible for the
warship-building industry perform themselves a cool examination of their own
ideological viewpoint and stand towards their professional jobs and acquire a
responsible and immaculate way of work.
During the recent restoration work, the
reliability and technical superiority of the destroyer's design was confirmed
and development-oriented opinions were raised for building warships.
And a strict and due blow was delivered to
incautiousness, irresponsibility, indolence, unscientific work attitude and
empiricism latent in different sectors of our work.
Terrible man-made disasters caused by such
irresponsibility and lack of scientific accuracy are now a commonplace in
several other sectors and fields–railways, transport, power industry and
construction sites to name a few.
This time we dealt a telling blow at the
unscientific attitudes and viewpoints steeped in such irresponsibility and
empiricism.
In a certain sense, I think that we have gone
through a necessary process, and in view of all our future work, it was not a
loss of time. I also think that this time we have drawn a great lesson.
The super-radical growth of our Navy's
operations capability is now being proved by powerful entities, not by a
prediction or possibility, and this has already become an unstoppable, powerful
current of history.
Our steps in writing a new chapter in the
history of the Navy are being accelerated by a great motive power, and more
innovative and successive results prepared–this is the important meaning of
today's launching and naming ceremony of the warship.
Our launching of Choe Hyon-class destroyer
No. 2 that will perform multi-mission operations is another significant event,
which fully demonstrates the indomitable will and strong executing abilities
peculiar to our Party and people bravely clearing the untrodden path for
realizing their ennobling ideals.
This warship will be handed over to the Navy
in the middle of next year after its weapon systems have become integrated, and
the assessment of its performance and capability for conducting operations, the
test of its integrated operation and other several necessary procedures have
been rounded off.
Availing myself of this important
opportunity, I would like to express my warm thanks to the workers, technicians
and officials of the Chongjin and Rajin shipyards and other units in the
shipbuilding industry for powerfully demonstrating the invincible might of
Korea and the mettle of its people in admirably building new-generation
destroyer No. 2 of our Republic by responding through collaborative innovations
to the miraculous achievement at the Nampho Shipyard. My thanks also go to the
related sectors that are directing devoted efforts to the warship-building
industry.
I would also like to offer my warm
congratulations to the sailors of this destroyer, who I believe will write
pages of distinguished services in the annals of our proud Navy together with
the honourable name of Kang Kon.
Comrades,
As far as I know, there are only a few
nations in the world that build such a warship by their own efforts.
Our warship-building industry has set sail
for its development in real earnest, setting long-term objectives to be
attained by the related industries, and this process is promoting their
development.
As innovative warship-building processes have
been established in the field of shipbuilding industry and an absolute
standard, namely, new-generation destroyer, has been set, research and
development projects for appropriate equipment are now underway to reach the
targets set clearly in compliance with the strict requirements.
To take an example, the detection and
electronic warfare sector has made a leap forward.
As it has to be consistent with the
destroyer's tactical and technical specifications, the radar system research
sector has accelerated its work to meet the strict standards and attain
targets, with the result that it has achieved remarkable progress and opened a
bright prospect for its development.
The success is not limited only to the
on-board radar; it will serve as a solid springboard for a chain of technical
revolution in the whole of our military hardware development and manufacturing
sector.
Also, the development of a complex integrated
on-board weapon management system has made it possible to apply AI technology
under combat situations and define the development orientation of this sector.
Various kinds of surface and torpedo weapon
systems are now under research and development and, importantly, a radical
change is predicted in the engine dynamic system configuration of warships.
Today we are stepping up the revolution in
the warship-building industry full steam not only because we are firm in our
will but because we have secured our own industrial potentials and a high level
of technical capabilities for guaranteeing the revolution in practice.
We ought to feel self-confident and proud in
the rapid development of our warship-building industry.
The fact that the leading shipbuilding bases
in the western and eastern coastal areas have built new-generation destroyers
immaculately confirms that we have two powerful pillars capable of supporting
the rapid development of our shipbuilding industry.
In the course of building new-type
destroyers, our shipbuilding industry has recorded a new page of developing and
building giant warships by its own efforts, set an eye-opening record in its
speed and standards, and verified its inexhaustible potentials fully capable of
propelling the revolution in the warship-building industry.
In the struggle to implement the Party's
lines and policies, the internal forces that are capable of shouldering the
present and future of the warship-building industry have increased remarkably
and a large number of workers have grown up into hard-core elements. These are
the most precious and powerful asset for achieving our cause of building an
advanced maritime power which we must carry out without fail and accomplish
with credit.
Through the recent course of building a
new-type destroyer despite many difficulties, the workers of the Chongjin and
Rajin shipyards have added lustre to their proud struggling tradition and
mettle of building ships badly needed in defending the maritime sovereignty and
developing the marine transport and fishing industry of the country, and grown
up into reliable masters of the shipbuilding industry.
In particular, they produced a patriot who
ended his ennobling life that will remain long in the affectionate memory of
all people.
That was Jo Kum Hyok, leader of sheet-metal
processing workteam No. 1 of the modernization workshop of the Chongjin
Shipyard.
I was told that he put his heart and soul
into the building of this destroyer though his health was in a poor condition,
before breathing his last at his workplace.
I feel my heart rending to recall him, who
passed away a few days before this ceremony of launching the destroyer
associated with his painstaking efforts.
As I think that this warship is on the sea
not merely by means of physical buoyancy but by dint of the pure loyalty and
ardent patriotism of our working class, I am wrapped in solemn feelings.
His wife and son must be present here at this
ceremony.
I extend deep sympathy to his wife and family
members. Our motherland will highly appreciate his genuine life and remember it
for ever.
The bereaved family members will be given a
socialist patriotic sacrifice certificate, and the North Hamgyong Provincial
Committee of the Party and the Party organization of the Chongjin Shipyard will
take good care of them and ensure that his son grows up to be a genuine man who
will devote himself for the sake of the Party and the country just as his
father did.
Our Party will propose to award high official
commendations to exemplary persons who have been tested and tempered
spiritually and ideologically in the struggle for building the modern warships
at the Nampho and Chongjin shipyards and to admit them to its organization.
Highly appreciating Jo Kum Hyok and other
workers of the Chongjin Shipyard for the ennobling spiritual world and feats of
labour they displayed and performed while working with devotion in the struggle
for the country's prosperous future, I express deep thanks to all the workers
in the shipbuilding sector for discharging their honourable mission and
revolutionary duty in the effort to make ceaseless progress in modernizing our
Navy.
Comrades,
The warship the Chongjin Shipyard has built
this time is a super-powerful, state-of-the-art multi-mission destroyer, whose
structure, performance and all other elements of the weapon systems are
identical with those of the Choe Hyon launched earlier.
I am sure that these two warships built in
2025 will play a great role in improving the operations capability of our Navy.
As we have declared already, we will continue
to build every year two destroyers of the same or higher class and commission
them into the Navy.
Not long ago, the Party Central Military
Commission officially endorsed a project of building two 5 000 ton-class
destroyers additionally next year.
This portends an important and epochal change
in the position and defence activities of our Republic's Navy.
The new-generation warships, which will be
built and commissioned according to the already-confirmed warship-building plan
and the general warship designs, will enlarge the operations scope and
capabilities of our Navy at a strategic level.
The greater the combat capability of our
naval forces becomes, the farther waters our Navy will reach away from our
territorial waters; and the farther the operations sphere of our Navy extends
on the oceans, the more inevitable our enemies' strategic retreat will be.
This means that the dignity of our Republic's
honourable Navy, famed for its heroic fighting spirit, will be demonstrated not
only in our territorial waters but in the vast expanse of oceans as well.
Comrades,
I would like to remind you, in a brief
summary, that our state's overall security environment, namely on land, at sea,
and in the air, is unpredictably perilous owing to the enemy's adventurous
sabre-rattling that may trigger a nuclear war.
In particular, our neighbouring waters have
turned into the most dangerous hotbed of nuclear war, where nuclear strike
means, such as the US Navy's nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines
and other warships, appear any time.
The military situation around our state has deteriorated,
so much so that we can feel it not unusual but quite common to see the
appearance of the US Navy's and Air Force's strategic nuclear means.
No waters adjacent to any other country is as
dangerous as ours, where one of the belligerents deploys a large number of
warships and persists with its open nuclear war drills against the other.
Recently, the armies of the United States and
its vassal states grow undisguised in their provocative ambitions, and their
threats to our security have clearly gone well beyond the danger limit.
Given the prevailing situation, our decision
is definite and consistent.
In dealing with our aggressive rival we will
respond to each one of its manoeuvres immediately and with equal strength, and
we will take overwhelming military actions each time.
Possessing operations capability on the
oceans and exercising naval power there is our indispensable option for
defending our national sovereignty and security interests.
It is not long before the enemy forces
themselves will experience how offending and unpleasant it is to have to watch
their rival's warships cruising on the fringes of their territorial waters.
Certainly, soon afterwards, our warships'
routes to the enemy's naval ports, outposts of their invasion, in the Pacific
will be opened, and the names of our enemy states' major ports and sea waters
will be recorded in the logbooks of our East Sea and West Sea fleets.
This accords with the freedom of navigation
that is guaranteed for our state.
We will exercise our rights fairly and
squarely.
Our Navy's creed should be that it can
prevent invasion only when it is capable of counter-attacking and builds up
such a capability.
We have such a capability.
And we will surely build it up.
We should accelerate the development of our
Navy's fighting capability in a more comprehensive way so that the enemy will
not dare attempt to initiate any aggressive action in our neighbouring waters.
Comrades,
Our cause of opening up a golden age for the
Navy has entered a full-scale stage, but this is no reason for us to rest on
our laurels.
The workers, scientists and technicians in
the shipbuilding industry, standing in the vanguard of our grandiose struggle
to develop the Juche-oriented naval forces, should give full play to their
unfailing loyalty, patriotism, remarkable qualifications and unflinching
executing abilities, thus creditably building powerful warships as planned and
decided upon by our Party.
My future plan is to open up a new booming
stage for the shipbuilding industry with the Chongjin Shipyard as the backbone
and build on an extensive scale modern large warships befitting the prestige of
a military power.
It is high time for us to advance towards the
goal of attaining the global standards in our shipbuilding industry, which will
represent the future of a maritime country.
As a shipbuilding giant of the country, the
Chongjin Shipyard should boldly upgrade its technical and production processes
and supplement what is lacking, so as to complete its features as a modern
industrial unit; then it should build more advanced warships than this Choe
Hyon-class destroyer.
This may seem to be a challenging task, but
only by carrying it out can the shipyard fulfil its role, which has been rated
primary, in helping the country take on the true appearance of a maritime
power.
The Party and the state should put an
emphasis on ensuring that, in addition to the Chongjin Shipyard, this Rajin
Shipyard and all the other shipbuilding bases, which have their due role to
play in effecting the revolution in the warship-building industry, push ahead,
according to schedule, with their long-term projects and immediate work plans.
This will give renewed impetus to the comprehensive upgrading of our
shipbuilding industry that is definitely advancing on a new track of
development.
Comrades,
We should keep in mind that every warship we
are building and their launching has a direct bearing not only on our maritime
sovereignty but also on the sacred dignity and prestige of our state.
I trust the workers in the warship-building
sector.
I hope that the workers, technicians and
officials of this shipyard, united with one mind and will behind the Party
Central Committee, will make a substantial contribution to ushering in an era
of great rejuvenation for our shipbuilding industry.
Comrades,
Our beloved East Sea is welcoming its
trustworthy defender.
The Kang Kon will set out on a voyage, which
is linked to our people's peace and wellbeing.
Warships of a new generation are to be
launched one after another in the coming years, and they will form the backbone
of our maritime defence forces. They will demonstrate the honour and dignity of
our state, opening up a route to peace and prosperity for our country and
people advancing towards the goal of comprehensive rejuvenation.
Courageous sailors of the Kang Kon, who are
beginning an honourable service aboard this matchless warship named after the
anti-Japanese revolutionary fighter,
The Kang Kon, along with the Choe Hyon, will
win fame as an invincible warship defending the purity and beauty of our seas
with credit.
I believe you will brave any raging storm and
follow the route to victory, mindful of the patriotic desires of Kang Kon who,
in the prime of his life, performed brilliant exploits in the battlefields for
achieving national liberation and defending the country.
Officials and workers in the shipbuilding
sector and all the workers at the Chongjin and Rajin shipyards,
Let us march vigorously towards the goal of
building an advanced maritime power in the new century, while carrying out the
historic tasks facing us without fail.
Long live our heroic working class!
Long live the brave Navy of Korea!
Long live the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea!
