TOKYO, August 5. /TASS/. North Korean border guard forces received 250 launchers of up-to-date tactical ballistic missiles that were produced domestically, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Monday.
"Demonstrating the indefinite development of the national defence capabilities and the great leaps forward in modernizing the powerful army, which serve as a powerful pillar and driving force for achieving great victories successively in the future revolutionary struggle, a ceremony for transferring 250 new-type tactical ballistic missile launchers produced at major munitions industrial establishments to the frontier military units of the DPRK took place in the capital city of Pyongyang with splendor," the North Korean agency reported.
According to KCNA, the ceremony of handing over the new weapons was personally supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and prior to the ceremony, Kim Jong Un looked round a new-type tactical ballistic missile launcher to be commissioned as a new pivotal attack weapon of the DPRK armed forces.
KCNA reported Kim Jong Un as saying at the ceremony that efforts aimed at strengthening national defense capabilities are the most important on the list of state affairs jointly with the improvement of life conditions in the country and the elimination of the consequences caused by natural calamities.
"Saying that for a country, economic construction, bolstering of defense capabilities, improvement of the people's living standard, natural disaster relief, etc. are crucial affairs and main functions of the state, all of which should never be neglected, Kim Jong Un noted that to hold a ceremony of transferring the new-type weapon system, even at a time when the whole country has turned out in a campaign for recovery from flood damage, is a manifestation of the firm will of our Party to push ahead with the bolstering of defense capabilities, the fundamental guarantee for safeguarding the people and sovereignty, without stop in any circumstances, and is the invariable principled stand maintained by us in the state building," KCNA reported.
A heavy downpour on July 27 caused the water level in the Amnok River to rise above an emergency level. The Korean Central News Agency reported at that time that more than 5,000 residents of Sinuiju City and Uiju County in North Pyongan Province were left stranded.
Helicopters were employed to evacuate them, and the situation on the ground was personally controlled by Kim Jong Un.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier offered his North Korean counterpart assistance in combatting the aftermath of the tragic natural calamity.
Apart from the natural calamities, the North Korean state-run agency added that "Kim Jong Un expressed belief that the latest weapons, another firm stepping stone for injecting vitality into the name and flag of the DPRK and remarkably enhancing its prestige, would demonstrate their might as a powerful treasured sword for defending sovereignty of the country and peace."