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Kim Jong Un Oversees North Korean Troops As They Practice An Attack On South Korea
Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, oversaw a live-fire artillery drill simulating an attack on a South Korean airfield and urged his troops to be ready to counter any “frantic war preparation moves” by their adversaries. It appears that he was alluding to the recent round of military exercises between the US and South Korea.
It occurs a day after South Korea’s military reported seeing the North launch at least one short-range ballistic missile into the ocean from a location close to the western coastal city of Nampo.
The joint chiefs of staff for the South were determining whether further missiles may have been launched concurrently.
Recently, the US has dispatched long-range B-1B and B-52 bombers for several joint aerial drills with South Korean warplanes.
To address the mounting threat posed by Mr. Kim’s expanding nuclear weapons, the allies are also getting ready for their largest joint field training exercise in years this month.
Regular US-South Korean military drills are seen as an invasion practice by North Korea.
Kim reportedly encouraged his forces to be ready to “overwhelmingly respond to and contain” the military action of the North’s foes, who are, in his words, moving forward with “all sorts of more frantic war preparation actions,” according to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
To fulfill their two primary “strategic tasks, namely, to first deter conflict and second to take the initiative in battle,” he stated frontline forces should improve their skills.
Later on Friday, the Unification Ministry of South Korea asked North Korea to cease its “reckless nuclear and missile programs and military provocations” to lower tensions.
How many rockets were shot during the practice on Thursday was not made clear in the KCNA report. Large-sized multiple rocket launchers, which experts say blur the distinction between artillery and ballistic missile systems, are among the North’s more recent short-range weaponry aimed against South Korea.
The fact that North Korea refers to some of its more sophisticated short-range systems as tactical weapons suggest that it intends to equip them with nuclear bombs for the battlefield that have a reduced yield.
According to experts, the North is signaling a threat to use these weapons proactively during a conventional conflict to counter the greater conventional forces of South Korea and the US, which keeps roughly 28,000 troops in South Korea to assist deter future attacks from North Korea.
Mr. Kim’s remarks were consistent with an escalatory nuclear policy that the North put into law last year and allows for preemptive nuclear strikes in circumstances when it may feel its leadership is in danger, including conventional battles.
At least six rockets were being fired from launch vehicles lined up in an unidentified coastal woodland location, according to photos provided by the official newspaper of North Korea, Rodong Sinmun.
Together with military personnel, Mr. Kim observed the firings from an observation point.
