North Korean leader inspects drills with call for war preparation
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has overseen paratroop drills, urging the nation’s military to make preparations for war.
During his inspection, he urged troops to participate in “realistic and scientific” military training as the best means of preparation for combat, North Korean state media KCNA reported Saturday.
North Korean military drills took place after joint annual drills involving South Korea and the United States wrapped up earlier this week.
The North Korean leader expressed “great satisfaction” with the nation’s airborne troops as they “occupied the simulated main enemy military targets at once.”
The troops demonstrated “their perfect combat capability to occupy the enemy region at a stroke once an order is issued,” he said.
North Korea denounces joint drills of South Korea and the US while warning Seoul of dire consequences.
“Only realistic training directly related to warfare can prepare soldiers as real combat fighters,” Kim insisted.
Saturday’s report on North Korean troops’ exercises comes just days after Pyongyang announced that Kim had test-driven a “new-type main battle tank” used in war, which it described as the “most powerful in the world.”
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik visited the headquarters of the army’s Special Warfare Command during the Seoul-Washington drills earlier this week.
“If Kim Jong-un wages war, you should become the world’s strongest special warfare unit that quickly removes the enemy’s leadership,” Shin said during the visit.
Earlier this week, Washington and Seoul wrapped up their annual large-scale Freedom Shield exercises — involving missile interception and air assault drills, among others — with double the number of troops participating compared to 2023.
North Korea sees the annual joint Seoul-Washington drills as a military rehearsal for an invasion of the country.
Pyongyang has declared South Korea as its “principal enemy”, threatening to go to war with Seoul over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement.
