金正恩、駆逐艦「崔賢」就役式典で祝賀演説

Pyongyang, June 24 (KCNA) — The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un made a congratulatory speech at the commissioning ceremony of the destroyer Choe Hyon. The full text of his speech is as follows: Workers of the Nampho Shipyard and scientists, technicians and officials in the shipbuilding and defence industry sectors, Officers and other sailors of the destroyer Choe Hyon, who will write the first page of the glorious log in the history of our Navy, All commanders, officers and other sailors of the Navy of the Korean People’s Army, Comrades, This is a day when we are feeling a great emotion, whose significance cannot be fully described in one hundred, nay, one thousand words. This destroyer, a powerful naval combat system which even we recognize with admiration, is going to be commissioned for the Navy at last, and a new chapter of history will be written for the defence of the sacred maritime sovereignty and airspace of Korea. At this moment, when the wish of all the generations of our Navy for a most powerful warship and of other people for all the things on this land, beautiful and precious, to be defended at all costs is to be realized, I would like first of all to extend warmest greetings of gratitude once again to the workers of the Nampho Shipyard and the talented persons and officials in the shipbuilding and defence industry sectors, who have worked devotedly day and night with ardent patriotism. To transform the appearance of our Navy, which we should build up with an ardent desire and aspiration to translate the design into reality, is never plain sailing, but we are now doing it at exponential speed. In the whole course of building and testing this destroyer, the first of its kind in the history of our Navy and our armed forces, we have confirmed the satisfactory result that the warship is possessed of the most perfect, complex operational and combat capability. We can feel due pride in the fact that the Choe Hyon is a warship that can creditably perform its operational mission in any waters. From the first step, we planned and started building this large warship, which is completely new, by our own efforts and loading it with our own weapon systems; so we could apply unparalleled technology and power to this ship and accelerate its building at an unbelievable speed. We can now affirm that there is no insurmountable technological barrier for us in building and launching destroyers and cruisers of different classes that embody our style of principles and original concepts of navy building. Furthermore, we have laid solid foundations for our shipbuilding industry, all the elements of which are self-supporting and conform to the actual situation; we have also acquired a thorough knowledge of the methodology for ensuring maximum military and economic efficiency in operating a vessel. We are now switching over to the stage of building various surface and underwater combat systems and deploying them offshore and in the oceans without feeling any restrictions. Such huge projects have been turned into reality beyond our imagination. This success is an ensemble of the wisdom, techniques and united efforts of all the scientists, technicians, workers and officials in the shipbuilding and defence industry sectors. Comrades, In our era, when everything is undergoing change, we are witnessing the quickest and clearest change in the Navy. In less than three years after we declared that we would transform the Navy without fail, our Navy has put an end to over 70 years of its stagnation. In looking back upon the day of the declaration, it is no exaggeration to say that modernization of the Navy started virtually from scratch. In terms of military hardware, the Navy was the weakest of all the services of our armed forces. It can be said that our seas have so far been safeguarded thanks to our sailors’ death-defying spirit of defence and matchless bravery alone. But, things have changed obviously now. The combat capability of our Navy will