(Seoul) North Korea’s military said it would expand and intensify military exercises in ‘war readiness’, state media reported on Tuesday, ahead of a massive parade .
The pledge was made at a meeting held on Monday under the leadership of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, following joint air exercises by South Korea and the United States last week.
On the agenda was “the steady expansion and intensification of Korean People’s Army combat operations and exercises […] in order to strictly perfect war readiness,” according to the official KCNA news agency.
At the same time, private satellite images suggest that “significant preparations for a military parade” are underway in the capital Pyongyang, ahead of national holidays which will take place in February.
On February 8, North Korea celebrates the anniversary of the founding of its armed forces, and on February 16, the birthday of Kim Jong-il, father and predecessor of the current North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. .
Seoul and Washington last week held aerial drills with strategic bombers and stealth fighter jets, angering Pyongyang, which said such maneuvers could “trigger an all-out confrontation”.
This show of force by the two allied powers comes after US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart announced increased security cooperation against Pyongyang.
For North Korea, the steps taken by Seoul and Washington to step up their joint exercises crossed “an extreme red line”, a spokesperson for the North Korean Foreign Ministry had told KCNA.
Pyongyang considers these aerial maneuvers as rehearsals for an invasion of its territory.
According to Hong Min, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, a Seoul-based research organization, Monday’s meeting of North Korean brass was meant to underscore the country’s readiness for upcoming joint military exercises and at war.
The North Korean leader had called in early January for an “exponential increase in North Korea’s nuclear arsenal”, including the mass production of tactical nuclear weapons and the development of new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).