Seoul, Aug 5 (EFE).- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presided over a ceremony to deliver 250 tactical ballistic missile launchers to frontline units on the border with South Korea, state media reported Monday.
The ceremony took place on Sunday at the Mirim training ground in Pyongyang, photos released by KCNA showed.
Although KCNA did not specify what type of “new key offensive weapon”, the images point to mobile erector launchers (TEL) for Hwasong-11 short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs), which the regime says can be equipped with nuclear warheads.
Pyongyang is believed to have transferred the missiles to Moscow for use in Ukraine as part of the rapprochement that North Korea and Russia have staged over the past year.
During the ceremony, which comes amid severe floods in the northwest of the country, Kim Jong-un said that it was “a manifestation of the firm will” of the party “to firmly push forward under any circumstances the strengthening of defensive capabilities, a fundamental guarantee for safeguarding the people and sovereignty.”
Kim then reviewed all the launchers deployed on the large esplanade of the Mirim training ground.
The ceremony was also attended by his sister, Kim Yo-jong, who is deputy director of Propaganda and Agitation, his daughter, believed to be Kim Ju-ae, and Hyon Song-wol, a former member of the Moranbong Gang who is in charge of logistical operations for Kim Jong-un himself.
Earlier this year the North Korean leader himself declared South Korea as the main national enemy and pushed to abandon the goal of peaceful reunification.
Since then, the regime has removed a multitude of symbolic elements in the country that called for the aforementioned peaceful reunification.
This profound diplomatic shift goes hand in hand with an intense rapprochement with Russia. EFE
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