North Korean leader Kim calls on his army to sharpen war plans while his opponents prepare exercises

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered his military to refine its war plans and signed off on expanding combat operations for frontline units, state media reported Thursday, as the United States and South Korea prepare for a major military operation. . The scope of joint military exercises.

After denouncing the Allied expanded exercises as rehearsals for invasion, Kim used them as an excuse for more exercises Speed ​​up his weapon demonstrationswhich has included more than 100 missile test launches since the start of 2022, pushing tensions on the Korean Peninsula to their highest point in years.

Experts say Kim’s nuclear quest is aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of ​​the North as a nuclear power so that it can eventually negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength.

Thursday’s meeting of the Central Military Commission of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, which Kim controls as chairman, was to discuss boosting his military’s war readiness and drawing up plans for offensive countermeasures to deter his opponents, which state media said had become more apparent in “recklessness”. military confrontation “with the North.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said that after talks to bolster frontline units in North Korea and intensify war drills to incorporate new strategies and weapons, Kim signed an order to carry out unspecified “important military measures.”

During the meeting, Kim stressed that the military should possess “more powerful offensive means” to strengthen its nuclear deterrence and make faster deployments of such weapons to combat units. He called on the country’s munitions industry to intensify mass production of various weapons and systems, and urged the army to conduct “actual war training” by digesting those systems and enhancing its war fighting capabilities, KCNA reported.

Pictures of the meeting released by state media showed Kim pointing to points on a blurred map of the Korean peninsula. Those locations appeared to be the urban area around the South Korean capital, Seoul, where half of the country’s 51 million people live, and an area around the central city of Daejeon, which is the site of the South Korean military’s headquarters.

KCNA said Kim also made personnel changes during the meeting, naming Vice Marshal Ri Yong Gil as the new chief of the general staff, replacing Gen. Pak Soo Il.

Since beginning his rule in late 2011, Kim has shown a quick tendency to replace senior government and military officials if he is unhappy with their performance or needs to hold them accountable for broader policy failures, which the North has never pinned on its supreme leader.

Cheong Seong said the decision to remove Pak’s eight months in office may have indicated that Kim was dissatisfied with his ability to formulate military strategies and returned to a more trusted position in Ri, who had previously served a long stint as chief of the general staff. Chang, senior analyst at the Sejong Institute in South Korea.

Asked about Kim’s comments, Ahn Un-ju, a South Korean foreign ministry spokesman, said it was “unfortunate” that North Korea talked about strengthening preparation for war while ignoring the plight of its own impoverished population. Some experts say that Northern economy Probably at its worst since Kim took power. The restrictions of the emerging corona virus (Covid-19) have also shocked the economy, which has been crippled by decades of mismanagement and sanctions imposed by the United States over its nuclear ambitions. That has not stopped Kim from directing the country’s limited resources to expanding a nuclear arsenal that he sees as the strongest guarantee of survival.

“North Korea should instead be mindful of the safety of its citizens as a typhoon approaches,” Ahn said, referring to Tropical Storm Khunun, which lashed South Korea with heavy rains and winds on Thursday and was expected to hit North Korea early Friday.

“We maintain a position of resolute readiness, and empty threats from North Korea to use force will not work for us,” she said.

Lee Seung-joon, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea, said during a briefing that the US and South Korean intelligence authorities are closely monitoring North Korea’s weapons development activities and possible provocations.

Kim’s comments during the meeting echoed what he said last week over three days A tour of the country’s major arms factoriesincluding a facility that produces launcher trucks for its intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the United States mainland, and has called for significant improvements in the country’s equipment and readiness for war.

Kim’s visits also included an artillery factory that deepened outside concerns that North Korea was preparing to export artillery and other weapons supplies to Russia as President Vladimir. Putin reaches out to other countries for support In the war in Ukraine.

In the face of escalating confrontations with Washington and Seoul, Kim has tried to enhance the visibility of his partnerships with Moscow and Beijing to break out of diplomatic isolation and insert himself into a united front against the United States.

Kim invited Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and officials of the Chinese ruling party to share center stage in a giant Military parade in Pyongyang Where he launched his most powerful missiles designed to target South Korea and the United States. Shoigu’s presence at the July 27 parade came after Kim gave him a tour of a local arms fair, showing North Korean support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and raising suspicions about North Korea’s willingness to supply weapons to Russia.

During Thursday’s meeting, North Korean officials also agreed to hold another military parade to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of its government. The September 9 parade will be the third such event in the country in 2023 alone. Analysts say North Korea has never staged more than two military parades in the same year.

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