(Seoul) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his military to step up military maneuvers for ‘real war’ in a missile drill attended by his daughter, reports Friday the official agency KCNA.
North Korea should “regularly intensify the various real-life war simulation exercises, in a variety of ways and in different situations,” Kim Jong-un said, according to KCNA.
In addition, the North Korean leader, who oversaw a new military exercise, ordered soldiers to prepare for “two strategic missions: first, to deter war, and second, to initiate war.”
Footage released Friday by KCNA showed the simultaneous launch of six missiles by the Hwasong unit, trained for “strike missions”, the agency said, adding that the unit “fired a powerful salvo (of missiles) on the targeted waters of the West Korean Sea”.
The day before, the South Korean army announced that it had detected the launch of a short-range ballistic missile towards the sea off its west coast, fired from the port city of Nampo, south of Pyongyang.
The military exercise comes as Seoul and Washington prepare to conduct their largest joint military exercises in five years on Monday.
Earlier this week, North Korea accused the United States of “intentionally” stoking tensions and Kim Yo Jong, the very powerful sister of Kim Jong-un, warned that if the United States intercepted one of the tests missiles from Pyongyang, this would be seen as a “declaration of war”.
Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul are at a multi-year low, with talks stalled.
Attack airbases
During this military training, the North Korean leader appeared accompanied by his daughter Ju Ae, considered by some analysts to be the future heiress of the regime.
His recent appearance alongside his father at a major military parade last month, to mark the 75e anniversary of the founding of the country’s army, had already revived speculation about a future transfer of dynastic power in North Korea.
“It would seem that Ju Ae’s presence at major events related to the North’s nuclear development and its missiles — which Pyongyang deems to be of crucial use for the country’s future generations — has become the norm,” he said. AFP Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
North Korea has long claimed that its ballistic and nuclear programs are for self-defense. She also condemned the recent joint exercises by Seoul and Washington, considering them as dress rehearsals for an invasion of her territory.
The North Korean air force is the weakest link in its military apparatus, experts say, who believe that the exercises in Pyongyang on Thursday are proof that the regime is trying to fill this weakness.
“North Korea’s latest maneuvers, like many of the previous ones, are aimed at preventing South Korean warplanes from taking off,” defector An Chan-il, director of the Institute, told AFP. World of North Korean Studies.