North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Thursday supervised a live-fire artillery drill simulating an attack on a South Korean airfield and called for his troops to be ready to respond to “frantic war preparation moves” — apparently referring to a series of military drills between the US and South Korea.
A North Korean state media report yesterday came a day after South Korea’s military detected the North firing at least one short-range ballistic missile toward the sea from a site near the western coastal city of Nampo.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff was assessing whether more missiles might have been launched simultaneously.
Photo: EPA-EFE / KCNA
The US has recently sent long-range B-1B and B-52 warplanes for several rounds of joint aerial drills with South Korea. The allies are also preparing this month for their biggest combined field training exercise in years to counter the growing threat of Kim’s nuclear arsenal.
North Korea views regular US-South Korean military exercises as invasion rehearsals.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that Kim urged his troops to be prepared to “overwhelmingly respond to and contain” the military action of the North’s enemies, which he said were proceeding with “all sorts of more frantic war preparation moves.”
Photo: EPA-EFE / KCNA
Frontline units should sharpen their capabilities to carry out their two main “strategic missions, that is, first to deter war and second to take the initiative in war,” he said.
South Korea’s Ministry of Unification later yesterday urged North Korea to stop raising tensions with “reckless nuclear and missile programs and military provocations.”
Ministry vice spokesperson Lee Hyo-jung told reporters that North Korea must focus instead on caring for people’s livelihoods and take a path toward building peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Photo: EPA-EFE / KCNA
The KCNA report did not specify what types of weapons were involved in Thursday’s exercise or how many rockets were fired.
Some of the North’s newer short-range weapons include large multiple-rocket launchers that experts say blur the boundaries between artillery and ballistic missile systems.
North Korea describes some of its more advanced short-range systems as tactical weapons, which implies an intent to arm them with lower-yield battlefield nuclear weapons.
Experts said that the North with the wording is communicating a threat to use those weapons during conventional warfare to blunt the stronger conventional forces of South Korea and the US, which keeps about 28,000 troops in South Korea to help deter potential aggression from North Korea.
Kim’s comments were in line with an escalatory nuclear doctrine the North set into law last year, which authorizes pre-emptive nuclear strikes in situations where it perceives its leadership as under threat, including conventional clashes.
Photographs published by North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun showed at least six rockets being fired from launch vehicles lined up in an unspecified coastal forest area.
Kim watched the firings from an observation post along with military officials and his daughter, believed to be named Kim Ju-ae and about 10 years old.
She has appeared at several events tied to his military since first being showcased at a missile test launch in November last year.
Analysts believe the events and elevated descriptions of her in state media are meant to show the world that he has no intention to voluntarily surrender his nuclear weapons, which he apparently sees as the strongest guarantee of his survival and the extension of his family’s dynastic rule.
Coming off a record year in missile testing, experts said that North Korea is trying to claim a dual ability to conduct nuclear strikes against South Korea and the US mainland.
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
AIRLINES RECOVERING: Two-thirds of the flights canceled on Saturday due to the faulty CrowdStrike update that hit 8.5 million devices worldwide occurred in the US As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant