Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) leader Kim Jong Un has inspected a newly constructed submarine, calling for the development of naval armed forces to boost the country's military capabilities, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Tuesday.
Accompanied by senior officials from the ruling party and the field of national defense science, Kim looked into the new submarine's capabilities and expressed "great satisfaction," the state media said.
The report said the submarine would perform its duty in the East Sea soon but it did not provide details on the submarine, nor did it provide details of when and where the inspection was.
Kim said that "the operational capacity of a submarine is an important component in national defense," and that putting "big efforts to the development of the naval weapons and equipment such as submarine" is necessary to increase the national defense capability.
Yonhap says the inspection appeared aimed at putting pressure on Washington ahead of possible talks between the two sides.
Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump met at the inter-Korean border on June 30 and agreed to resume their working-level nuclear talks within a few weeks.
The talks are expected to start in mid-July but Pyongyang reportedly did not respond to Washington's offer for dialogue.
DPRK leader Kim Jong Un visits a submarine factory in an undisclosed location, in this undated picture released by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on July 23, 2019. /Reuters Photo
Last week, Pyongyang slammed the U.S. for planning to hold joint military drills with Seoul next month, warning that it could affect the agreed talks.
On Monday, Trump said there was "very positive" interaction recently with the DPRK and the two countries would meet when the DPRK is ready.
He made the comments during a meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House.
"There was a little correspondence recently, very positive correspondence with North Korea (DPRK). Again, there's no nuclear testing, there's no missile testing, there's no nothing. I think we will, yeah, at a certain point, when they're ready we'll be meeting."
(Cover: DPRK leader Kim Jong Un visits a submarine factory in an undisclosed location, in this undated picture released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on July 23, 2019. /Reuters Photo)
(With input from Reuters)