North Korean leader Kim Jong-un urged the army to develop to ensure that it wins any confrontation with the US, the country’s news agency said yesterday, a day after US President Barack Obama reminded North Korea of the US’ military might.
Kim led a meeting of North Korea’s Central Military Commission and “set forth important tasks for further developing the Korean People’s Army and ways to do so,” KCNA news agency said.
“He stressed the need to enhance the function and role of the political organs of the army if it is to preserve the proud history and tradition of being the army of the party, win one victory after another in the confrontation with the US and creditably perform the mission as a shock force and standard-bearer in building a thriving nation,” the agency said.
Obama said on Saturday on a visit to Seoul, where the US army has a large presence, that the US did not use its military might to “impose things” on others, but that it would use that might if necessary to defend South Korea from any attack by its northern neighbor.
North and South Korea are still technically at war after their 1950-1953 civil conflict ended in a mere truce.
Impoverished North Korea, which routinely threatens the US and South Korea, said last month that it would not rule out a “new form” of atomic test after the UN Security Council condemned Pyongyang’s launch of a mid-range ballistic missile into the sea east of the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea is subject to UN sanctions for previous atomic tests.
Recent satellite data show continued work at a test site in North Korea, although experts analyzing the data say that preparations do not appear to have progressed far enough for an imminent test.
“We don’t use our military might to impose these things on others, but we will not hesitate to use our military might to defend our allies and our way of life,” Obama told US forces at the Yongsan District garrison in Seoul.
“So like all nations on Earth, North Korea and its people have a choice. They can choose to continue down a lonely road of isolation, or they can choose to join the rest of the world and seek a future of greater opportunity and greater security and greater respect — a future that already exists for the citizens on the southern end of the Korean Peninsula,” Obama said.
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