Pyongyang, September 8 (KCNA) -- In order to thoroughly implement the powerful-army-building line and policy of the Workers' Party of Korea, which has set it as an urgent task to bolster up the Juche-based naval force as required by the historic turning point in building up the country's defence capabilities and army, the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un made a field survey for the construction of a modern naval base and clarified the orientation and ways for the construction.

He was accompanied by Marshal Pak Jong Chon, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and secretary of the C.C., WPK, Kang Sun Nam, minister of National Defence of the DPRK, Ri Chang Ho, deputy chief of the General Staff and director of the General Reconnaissance Bureau of the Korean People's Army, Kim Myong Sik, commander of the KPA Navy, and commanders of the East and West Sea Fleets of the Navy.

Touring the chosen site for harbor facilities on the coast, he discussed with leading officials the practical issues related to the orientation of construction.

He said that the DPRK, a maritime country bounded on the east and west sides by the sea, has always attached importance to the shipbuilding industry and the development of naval force in the building of the state and the national defence capabilities, adding that to build a modern and multifunctional naval base is a process of key importance in developing the naval force into a powerful service in conformity with the regional security environment in a short span of time according to the strong-army-building goal for the new era set forth by the 8th Party Congress. And he explained the geopolitical advantage of the site for the new naval base as a strategic vantage.

Now that we are soon to possess large surface warships and submarines which can not be anchored by the existing facilities for mooring warships, the construction of a naval base for running the latest large warships has become a pressing task, he said, and stressed the need to build a naval port capable of mooring warships and operating the systems of weapons on board and establishing a cultured way of life in a modern base for seamen. And he said that it is an urgent task in the era to build a modern port city as a symbol of the naval force of the DPRK and a center of the naval operational command and culture of the Navy.

He also indicated the military measures arising in deploying the anti-aircraft and coastal-defence weapon systems for defending the naval port.

He underlined the need to make epochal progress in implementing the Party's line of bolstering up the naval combat power by pushing ahead with the immediate measures.

It is the most important state affair and the first task of the revolution advanced by our Party to steadily develop the revolutionary army, the powerful vanguard and main force for accomplishing the revolutionary cause of Juche, and thus reliably defend the prosperity and security of the country and the people and the happiness of posterity. -0-

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