N. Korea opens new defense museum featuring ICBMs, other advanced weaponry

SEOUL, Oct. 13 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has opened a new defense museum featuring a wide range of weaponry, including its new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), with leader Kim Jong-un in attendance, state media reported Tuesday.

An opening ceremony of the National Defense Revolution Museum took place Sunday, according to the Korean Central News Agency, on the occasion of the 81st founding anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), which falls on Oct. 10.

Kim inspected the museum with the party's central leadership, including the secretaries of the WPK central committee and commanding officers of the North's national defense ministry, among others. His wife and daughter, Ju-ae, were also present for the event.

Kim touted the new defense museum as a "revolutionary treasure" that can only be possessed by the WPK and a "precious monument" that he said can only be built by the "powerful state and people with their absolute strength powerful enough to defend themselves."

The North Korean leader emphasized that it was a "due obligation" of the WPK to build the defense industry into the most powerful one in the world, adding the country's "juche-based weaponry" will be developed and completed in a strenuous manner alongside the scale and contents of the museum, the report said.

Juche, which signifies self-reliance, is the central ideology of the North Korean regime.

Photos disclosed by the North's state media showed a number of weaponry, ranging from personal combat gear to drones and missiles, displayed at the museum. They included the Hwasong-20 ICBM under development, a new submarine-launched ballistic missile and 600-millimeter super-large multiple rocket launchers, among others.

sookim@yna.co.kr
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