North Korea Launches Latest Destroyer

NORTH Korea’s Korean People’s Navy (KPN) launched its latest “multipurpose destroyer” on April 25 according to reports from state media agency Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The 5,000-tonne destroyer was launched by the nation’s leader Kim Jong Un at the military dockyard of Nampo.

The ship is the first in the Choe-Hyon-class, taking the namesake of an anti-Japanese revolutionary fighter. It is the lead ship of an entirely new class of heavily armed warships, equipped with anti-air, anti-ship weapons and reportedly even nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles. Said to have been built in little over 400 days, the ship is expected to be delivered to the KPN early next year and commissioned into active service.

In March, the nation also unveiled their first “nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine” under construction, the first of its kind.-shp/adj/dl (Pix:AP)