as Pyongyang accelerates an ambitious naval expansion. Kim toured the Nampho Shipyard on Monday, where North Korea is building a new warship, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The nuclear-equipped country has been rapidly upgrading its navy, commissioning 5,000-tonne destroyers and testing ship-launched missiles, while Kim has pledged to arm the fleet with nuclear weapons and build larger 10,000-tonne warships. Pyongyang says the expansion is needed to counter threats from the United States and South Korea, as North Korea develops weapons designed to extend its military reach beyond its traditionally coastal navy. Kim said the "recently emerging geopolitical environment and the hostile acts of adversaries" demonstrated "the need to possess the most advanced and powerful warships", according to KCNA. The warship under construction has a "combat system possessing operational capabilities that no other country in the world has", Kim said, stressing the "significant military importance of this enormous concentration of combat power". "He (Kim) said this was because we must defend our homeland, guarantee our sovereignty and deter all threats." Kim expressed "great satisfaction" after inspecting the vessel and said it was "incomparable to the destroyer built last year". (Bssnews)