Comrades,

I think it is very significant that in the run-up to the 80th founding anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the military hardware exhibition Defence Development-2025 is being held, which once again gives us a visual display of the general level attained by our defence capabilities.

This exhibition features the recent results of the important projects that we have pressed on with in order to put the structure of the DPRK’s military capabilities, with its nuclear deterrent as the backbone, on an increasingly modern, advanced footing.

Availing myself of this opportunity, I express my thanks to all the groups of defence scientists and technicians and all the workers in the munitions industry for having added significance to the revolutionary October holiday by achieving proud results of upgraded defence industry.

Comrades,

This exhibition brings into bold relief the historic meaning of the 80th founding anniversary of our Party.

Since the initial days of its founding our Party has consistently prioritized the Juche-oriented defence industry, laying the groundwork for its independent development and setting one ambitious goal after another for its steady growth. Recently, in less than one year, this industry has achieved notable successes again, and I am sure that making public those successes for our people to see constitutes the highest praise for our Party’s 80-year-long history.

It is because this exhibition eloquently shows that in building up the defence capabilities we have attained a much higher level than the founder generation of the Juche-oriented defence industry hoped to reach.

Our Party was born with the absolute mission of taking full responsibility for the destiny of the people, so it is a natural duty of the Party and its unique mode of activity to direct its main efforts to building the most powerful defence industry in the world and developing it without let-up so that it can protect the dignity and security of the nation, defend the rights and interests of the people and secure their future.

The history of our munitions industry, which provides a material and technical guarantee for our state’s overall military strength, started with the founding of the Party, and this industry, led by the Party, has followed a steady upward trajectory to become as it is today. These latest achievements of defence development, which fill up this venue, can proudly represent and symbolize our Party’s achievements for the state, revolution and people.

The destiny of a state and its people cannot be secured apart from the munitions industry which surely guarantees their security environment, as well as the vanguard organization which guides them politically.

As they had foreseen this undeniable truth and fully realized its realistic necessity, the first-generation revolutionaries of Korea, after national liberation, spared nothing for creating an armaments industry which would be the primary cornerstone in building a new country, while working to achieve the cause of founding the Party as their foremost concern.

The generations of our grandfathers and fathers, who had created the armaments industry of Korea, manufactured submachine guns which could be called their own things, both in name and in reality, from scratch after liberation. During the period of the hard-fought war, they even sacrificed their precious lives to produce weapons with which to destroy the imperialist invaders; in doing so, they created the tradition of the revolutionary spirit of Kunja-ri—the spirit of defending the country and displaying self-reliance.

As we have faithfully carried forward the spirit and tradition, the gunshots that rang out in Phyongchon-ri nearly eight decades ago led to a succession of explosions demonstrating the strength with which to reliably defend the independent dignity of our state and people and overpower the imperialist tyranny. And as we can see today, this has resulted in the steady production of Juche-based weapons, the like of which cannot be found in any ordnance encyclopaedia, thus decorating the venue for this splendid exhibition.

This exhibition can be said to be the epitome of epochal leaps forward made by our defence science and technology, and of the comprehensive development of our munitions industry.

At the recent session of the Supreme People’s Assembly, we reiterated that maintaining security and defending peace by dint of overwhelming strength is our unchangeable principle, and officially declared that we are prepared to cope with anything.

This exhibition will prove this guarantee.

Our latest achievements of defence development, which are on display here, have been proved to be sufficiently powerful on the highest level.

In recent years, military hardware capable of actively and effectively coping with the changing aspects of modern warfare has been newly developed or upgraded, and AI technology and other latest sci-tech findings have been widely introduced, with the result that the feasibility of their application not only to the present battlefield but also to the future one has been confirmed in view of the capability of fighting a war. This is an important feature of the development of our style of defence technology that can be seen in this exhibition.

I think that everyone present here can clearly see that our defence industry is now focusing on continuous upgrading and making a leap forward in order to protect the security environment of our state; it is doing so by relying on its self-supporting foundations, through a unique course of development and by highly ingenious methods of development.

This shows that we can review the work of the eighth-term Party Central Committee with pride in having attained its goals by fulfilling its ennobling mission and responsibility for the state and the people.

I, on behalf of the Party Central Committee, extend the warmest militant respect once again to all our groups of defence scientists and technicians and all our comrades working in the munitions industry for having prepared the most valuable presents for the celebration of the 80th founding anniversary of the Party.

Comrades,

I would like to stress once again that we must never allow ourselves to be complacent about the supremacy of our state’s defence capabilities, nor must we slow down on account of it.

The moment we feel complacency leads to the beginning of our advance getting sluggish.

Our military capabilities should be improved steadily.

As I have mentioned recently, the security environment and instability we are in at present never allow us to feel relieved or complacent even for a moment.

The US-ROK nuclear alliance is making rapid progress, and they are conducting various kinds of exercises to execute dangerous scenarios according to the so-called nuclear operations guidelines and to get adept at them. Recently, the United States is taking measures for expanding the stockpile of its military assets in and around the ROK, posing a real and serious threat to the security of our country and others in the region.

It is upgrading the whole structure of its military capabilities including strategic means of reconnaissance and offensive and defensive means.

What does this mean?

No one can deny or conceal the fact that the United States’ arms buildup schemes are mainly geared to making it easier to launch preemptive strikes against the other side in times of emergency.

This is the very situation.

Then, what should we do in such an environment?

We are closely watching the United States’ deployment of its means of strategic strike and reconnaissance in and around the Korean peninsula and their mobilization for hostile military acts in connection with a new possible threat to our state’s security.

And we have adopted clear measures.

In direct proportion to the US military’s arms buildup in the ROK region, our strategic concern about this region has also grown, and accordingly we have assigned our special assets to the major targets of our concern.

The enemy, I think, will have to worry about which direction their security environment is moving in.

I will not make a detailed comment about it.

They themselves should have to judge whether the territory of the ROK would be a safe place in any case.

We will surely adopt additional military measures corresponding to their manoeuvrings.

If the United States persists in the dangerous moves of reinforcing its military strength in blatant disregard of the security concerns of the states in the region, the developments will spur us more powerfully to implement the relevant military and technological measures aimed at removing the new threats and maintaining the balance of power.

Comrades,

Everyone will soon know the new goals to be set forth for the defence technology sector and the aspect of its development at the next stage.

The Party’s strategic programme for defence development specifies the development-oriented core goals for all the realms of the project.

Our powerful assets for national defence capability will develop more rapidly without a moment of delay, and the cause of the WPK for strengthening the war deterrent for self-defence without let-up will continue to follow the glorious road of victory.

I hope that all the comrades present at the opening ceremony of the military hardware exhibition, which has opened with splendour in celebration of the 80th founding anniversary of our Party, will have a good time, looking round in real earnest the exhibits with a high sense of dignity and pride in our tremendous strength.