North Korea plans to deploy a new type of artillery along its southern border, state media reported yesterday, potentially putting Seoul within striking range as Pyongyang deepens its hostility toward South Korea.
Despite peace overtures from the South Korean government, North Korea has repeatedly cast Seoul as its main adversary and has removed longstanding references to Korean unification from its constitution.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a munitions factory this week to review production of a new “155-millimeter self-propelled gun-howitzer,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
Photo AFP / KCNA VIA KNS
The weapon has a range exceeding 60km and is to be deployed this year to a long-range artillery unit along the border with South Korea, KCNA said.
Central Seoul lies about 50km to 60km from the frontier, and much of Gyeonggi Province — South Korea’s most populous, home to key industrial hubs — would also fall within range.
The howitzer would “provide significant changes and advantages to our military’s ground operations,” KCNA reported Kim as saying.
North and South Korea remain technically at war because their 1950 to 1953 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Pyongyang has blown up roads and railways linking it with South Korea, and purportedly built barriers near the border.
In another sign of its hardening stance, North Korea deleted all references to uniting the divided peninsula from its constitution, a review of the latest version this week showed.
The document no longer contains a clause saying Pyongyang seeks “the reunification of the homeland,” and includes a new one defining North Korea’s territory as extending northward to China and Russia, and southward to the “Republic of Korea,” South Korea’s official name.
The South Korean Presidential Office on Thursday said that it would continue to pursue peace efforts with North Korea.
In a separate report, KCNA said Kim also visited the 5,000-tonne destroyer Choe Hyon on Thursday to oversee handling tests ahead of its formal deployment.
North Korea has staged strategic cruise missile launches from the destroyer, which analysts believe could be equipped to carry nuclear warheads.
Kim voiced satisfaction with the vessel’s progress and instructed officials to hand it over to the navy by the middle of next month as planned, KCNA said.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
RSS