NKorea’s Kim: Improve war readiness
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered his military to expand its combat exercises and strengthen war preparedness as he looks to escalate an already provocative run in weapons demonstrations in the face of deepening tensions with his country’s neighbors and Washington.
Kim presided over a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission on Monday and encouraged the armed forces to perform “evervictorious feats” and display “matchless military strength” to open a new phase in development, the country’s official
Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday. The meeting came amid signs North Korea is planning a military parade that may be an occasion to showcase the latest hardware from Kim’s growing nuclear weapons and missile program that’s brewing concern for the U.S. and its allies in Asia.
The commission’s members, who represent Kim’s top military brass, discussed a series of tasks aimed at inducing “great change” in the military, including “constantly expanding and intensifying the operation and combat drills” and “more strictly perfecting the preparedness for war,” the agency said.
The commission also discussed unspecified organizational changes to
“fundamentally improve and strengthen” military affairs, and state media photos of the meeting showed a flag representing a possibly new department called the “missile general bureau.”
North Korea marks the 75th founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army on Wednesday and may celebrate with a parade in Pyongyang, the capital.
Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a briefing that the South Korean military has detected a “significant increase in personnel and vehicles” in areas related to parade rehearsals, but declined to share a specific assessment on when the event would take place. Lee said the South Korean military was closely monitoring developments related to North Korea’s possible creation of a new military bureau related to missiles, but didn’t provide further details. Some analysts say that the new department could possibly handle the development of nuclear warheads and ballistic systems. Kim’s comments from the military meeting are the latest warning from Pyongyang that it’s preparing to intensify its military demonstrations following a record-breaking year in missile testing. The warnings are in part a response to the United States’ expanding military drills with South Korea, which the allies have said are aimed at countering the North’s evolving threat.