PYONGYANG – The top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea () has overseen a ground jet test of an upgraded solid-fuel engine and an assessment test of the country’s new-type main battle tank, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Sunday.
On the performance test of the high-thrust engine, KCNA noted the maximum thrust of the solid-fuel engine made with composite carbon fiber material stands at 2,500 kN, saying the test is part of the national defense development plan under the DPRK’s new five-year plan.
Kim Jong-un, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, called the performance test an event of “strategic significance,” the report said.
Kim also oversaw a performance test of the country’s new-type main battle tank organized by the Armored Weapons Institute of the Academy of Defence Sciences, the KCNA said in a separate dispatch Sunday.
The test, designed to evaluate the tank’s active protection system, examined in detail the combat effectiveness of the system against anti-tank means attacking from different directions, the report added.
The test proved that the interceptor system of the new-type main battle tank is capable of destroying almost all existing anti-tank means, Kim said.
He also laid out major tasks for further stepping up the development of the country’s strategic forces both in quality and quantity, the report added.
Kim also oversaw the training of special operations units during a visit to a major training base, the KCNA said.
At the special operations training base directly under the authority of the Operations Bureau of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, Kim instructed the country’s armed forces to get fully prepared in conformity with the trend of modern warfare, stressing what he called an iron truth: “Much more sweat in the peacetime training leads to less blood in the battlefield,” said the report.
The DPRK leader laid out his plan for reorganizing the special operations forces and follow-up measures, the report added.
The training aimed to assess the physical and military capabilities of the combatants in the special operations units, it said.