North Korea’s Kim Jong-un orders military to prepare for war, expand combat drills
- Pyongyang’s latest warning came a week after it threatened to counter US military moves with the ‘most overwhelming nuclear force’
- It follows a record-breaking year in missile testing, amid signs that North Korea is preparing a massive military parade in the capital Pyongyang
Kim presided over a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission on Monday and encouraged the armed forces to perform “ever-victorious feats” and display “matchless military strength” to open a new phase in development, the country’s official Korean Central News Agency reported on Tuesday.
The commission’s members 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.
Last week, North Korea threatened to counter US military moves with the “most overwhelming nuclear force” as it condemned US plans to expand its joint exercises with South Korea and deploy more advanced military assets such as bombers and aircraft carriers to the region.
North Korea says massive missile barrage was a simulated attack on South, US
North Korea fired more than 70 ballistic missiles in 2022, including potential nuclear-capable weapons designed to strike targets in South Korea or reach the US mainland. It also conducted a slew of launches it described as simulated nuclear attacks on South Korean and US targets in response to the expanded US military drills with South Korea, which had been downsized during the Trump administration.
During a major political conference in December, Kim called for an “exponential increase” of the country’s nuclear warheads, mass production of battlefield tactical nukes targeting South Korea and the development of more powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles that could reach the American homeland.
Experts say Kim’s weapons tests and threats are aimed at forcing Washington to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power, which Pyongyang sees as a way to negotiate economic and political concession from a position of strength.
Diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang has been stalled since 2019, with the two sides remaining at odds over US-led economic sanctions against the North and the North’s nuclear programme.
