At a time when the struggle for attaining the important goals for realizing the grandiose plan of the Workers’ Party of Korea for building the country into an advanced maritime power is powerfully being pushed ahead with under the schedule set by the Eighth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea, there took place the guidance work of the Party Central Committee, which is of remarkable significance in defending the maritime sovereignty of the DPRK and in developing its shipbuilding industry.
Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, visited major shipyards to give field guidance to warship building.
The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un was greeted by leading officials of those shipyards.
Accompanying him were Jo Chun Ryong, secretary of the WPK Central Committee, Senior Admiral Kim Myong Sik, commander of the Navy of the Korean People’s Army, and major leading officials of the WPK Central Committee.
He acquainted himself with the ongoing work for attaining the goal of building warships, set forth by the Party Congress, and the technical equipment level of the shipyards and the progress of their modernization projects.
He expressed great satisfaction over the soaring spirit and labour feats of the workers who are registering signal successes in the implementation of the militant task for radically improving the modernity of our navy in the shortest span of time in line with the prerequisite requirement for the security of the state and the world development trend of naval forces.
He was reported on the progress made in attaining with confidence the goals for putting the shipbuilding industry on a Juche-oriented, modern and scientific basis, set forth by the Party Central Committee, by actively pushing ahead with the work for technical updating and expansion of production capacity to ensure the rapid development of our naval forces.
He gave a high appreciation of the fact that a bright prospect has been opened for introducing into the operations the most powerful warships capable of establishing the core of our Juche-oriented naval forces and meeting all the requirements of the national defence strategy in the shortest possible time, true to the strategic line of our Party on building up the national defences, and said:
The maritime sovereignty is the core of the sovereign rights of our country, which borders the sea both on the east and the west, and developing its naval forces into an elite, nuclear-armed force constitutes an important content of the strategy for the development of the national defence, which intensively reflects our Party’s present will to defend the sovereignty.
Only when there are powerful naval forces that no one can provoke, is it possible to defend the security of the country and the people and guarantee normal development of the fishing industry and the overall national economy. For us, the sea, before being a limitless base for prosperity, is an inviolable territory where the dignity and prestige of our state and the people’s life are defended.
The everlasting prosperity of our socialist Korea depends on how we defend the sea, a major front decisive of the life and death of the state and the people and a main route of aggression by the enemy countries. We should ensure that incomparably threatening warships fulfil their mission as powerful deterrent of a nuclear power, capable of containing the inveterate “gunboat diplomacy” of the hostile forces.
It is really significant progress that the rejuvenation of the country’s warship-building industry, which we aspire to, has laid its solid foundations and entered the full-scale stage of kindling the flame of modernization while enduring hardships. On the basis of the precious experience and technology we have gained so far, we should put spurs to decisively enhancing the warship-building capacity and upgrading the overall technological processes, so as to build a large number of modern warships of different missions desired by our naval forces.
The key to radically developing the warship-building industry, which can be called an ensemble of cutting-edge defence science and technology, is science and technology and training of talents. Regarding them as two elements for development and leap forward, we should vigorously lead the rejuvenation of warship-building industry, whose new appearance will be recorded in the history of the DPRK.
He said that the modernization of the shipyards, which should play an important role in the revolution in the new era for bolstering up the naval forces, should not be conducted in a passive way of filling up the missing processes of the existing foundations, but in the way of boldly and perfectly creating new and hi-tech bases suited to the prestige and status of a powerful nation. And he clarified the strategic plan of the WPK to this end.
He stated that the DPRK will never remain an onlooker to the naval and underwater military manoeuvrings of the enemies, who are seriously threatening its sovereignty and interests by constantly deploying large numbers of strategic assets, but reliably defend its maritime sovereignty and ensure a sure security guarantee on the Korean peninsula and the region through important innovations and changes of its naval forces and supremacy of its ever-developing strength.
Noting that the justness to put the country’s naval forces’ war posture and capability to fight a war on the most powerful and perfect level is increasing our will and desire for the rejuvenation of the warship-building industry, he affirmed that the sea defence capability of the DPRK, which is in a responsible and key position for defending peace on the Korean peninsula and the region, will be fully displayed in any necessary waters without limitation.
He expressed expectation and belief that all the officials and workers in the warship-building industry would further consolidate the arsenal for defending the country’s maritime sovereignty through a courageous struggle, mindful of their sacred honour and important mission as revolutionary industrial soldiers of the WPK, who have shouldered the state affair decisive of the future of the country’s navy and the defence of the territorial integrity and peace of the country.
The basic orientation for radically bolstering up the navy’s combat power considered important by the Party is to simultaneously push forward with modernization of surface and underwater warships and further improvement of their operations capabilities, he said. And he advanced the essential long-term plan and stage-by-stage goals for the possession of the warships to substantially guarantee the mission of our armed forces to defend the maritime sovereignty, as well as the future direction of the defence economic work and all the tasks to this end.
He also learned about the building of a nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine, which is being pushed forward according to the decisions of the Eighth Congress of the WPK.
His field guidance at the major shipyards is a significant event heralding a new phase of bolstering up the Juche-based naval forces.
