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 indispensible 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! -0-

www.kcna.kp (2025.06.13.)