North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected a test launch of a long-range surface-to-air missile from a site near the country's east coast yesterday, Reuters reported, citing information from the DPRK's state news agency KCNA today.
He also checked on the progress of work on the construction of an 8,700-ton nuclear submarine that can launch surface-to-air missiles, the agency added.
In the test supervised by Kim, which is supposed to assess the result of the country's strategic technology for developing a new type of high-altitude missile, air targets were destroyed at a distance of 200 kilometers, the KCNA said.
The North Korean agency did not specify when and where the leader inspected the submarine. The project to build it is part of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea's efforts to modernize the country's navy, one of the party's five major policy goals to strengthen its defense capabilities.
The KCNA quoted Kim Jong-un as saying that comprehensive development of nuclear capabilities and modernization of the navy were essential and inevitable because "the world is by no means peaceful now."
He also said that South Korea's plan to develop a nuclear submarine, agreed with Washington, would further heighten tensions on the Korean Peninsula and pose a national security risk, requiring him to take action.
The KCNA also reported today that Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a New Year's greeting to Kim on December 18.
Putin said the year 2025 had "special significance" on relations between Moscow and Pyongyang. The message said that the "heroic" participation of North Korean servicemen in the battles with Ukrainian troops in the Russian Kursk region "clearly proved the unbreakable friendship" between the two countries, the KCTA said.