Hwaseong-20 ICBM, new SLBM among exhibits; Kim Jong-un calls building world's strongest defense industry 'a calling'

KCNA reported Tuesday that the Defense Revolution Museum of the Second Economic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea opened to mark the 81st anniversary of the founding of the Korean Workers' Party. The agency said the opening ceremony was held Sunday. [Yonhap]
KCNA reported Tuesday that the Defense Revolution Museum of the Second Economic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea opened to mark the 81st anniversary of the founding of the Korean Workers' Party. The agency said the opening ceremony was held Sunday. [Yonhap]

North Korea has opened a defense museum showcasing new intercontinental ballistic missiles and other weapons systems.

KCNA reported Tuesday that the opening ceremony of the Second Economic Committee's Defense Revolution Museum was held "in a grand manner" Sunday.

The agency said the museum brings together the history of the ruling party's leadership over the defense industry — forged through "unwavering self-reliant conviction and determination, burning passion and wholehearted dedication" — along with its achievements.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un cut the ribbon at the ceremony and toured the museum with officials from the party's Central Committee secretariat and other central leadership bodies, defense industry officials, and military commanders. His wife, Ri Sol-ju, and daughter Ju-ae accompanied him.

Kim described the museum as "a great monument that only the Korean Workers' Party — which has ceaselessly walked a proud and glorious path before the homeland and future generations — could possess, and a precious landmark that only a powerful state and people with the absolute strength to defend themselves could erect."

He added that "for our party, born with the absolute mission of taking full responsibility for the people's destiny, building the world's strongest defense industry is a natural calling and a uniquely characteristic mode of activity." He went on to say that "the powerful Juche weapons, which serve as stepping stones to dramatically elevating our national prestige, will be developed and completed ever more vigorously along a path of unrivaled advancement and evolution, while the museum's scale and content will expand and grow richer day by day."

News of the museum's opening ran on the front page of the Rodong Sinmun, the Korean Workers' Party's official newspaper, accompanied by multiple photographs. The images show a wide array of items ranging from personal combat gear including optical sights to drones and various missiles.

Among the exhibits are the Hwaseong-20 ICBM — capable of reaching the continental United States — a new submarine-launched ballistic missile, the hypersonic missile Hwaseong-16B, a 600-millimeter super-large multiple rocket launcher, and the anti-ship missile Bada Suri.

Shin Jong-woo, secretary-general of the Korea Defense and Security Forum, said the opening was intended "to showcase Kim's achievements and North Korea's defense development." He noted that a multiple-warhead diagram displayed in front of the Hwaseong-20 mobile launcher, alongside a world map, showed a claimed strike range extending beyond the continental United States to the Middle East, Australia and South America. "It is propaganda aimed at securing a strategic advantage ahead of a North Korea-US summit," he said.

Shin added that the opening also carries the character of a show of force in response to South Korea's demand for an apology over North Korea's land mine provocation and the public disclosure of the first test launch of a hypersonic missile. He noted that Kim Yo-jong, director of the Korean Workers' Party's General Affairs Department, had previously emphasized tactical countermeasures in response to border fortification efforts.

A Ministry of Unification official said the opening appeared intended "to highlight the legitimacy of the self-defensive defense policy while at the same time showcasing the achievements of the defense sector under the party's leadership, both domestically and internationally."


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