(Seoul) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for increased production of missile launchers during a visit to an arms factory, in preparation for a “military confrontation” with South Korea. South and the United States.
During his visit to a ballistic missile launch systems factory, the leader congratulated officials of the establishment, saying that they had already “exceeded the target” for production of missile launchers “set by officials of the left in 2023,” state agency KCNA reported on Friday.
Kim Jong-un praised their “constant efforts to achieve a new production target in the new year,” the agency said, without providing the figures planned by the regime for 2024.
Such weapons factories are essential to “strengthening the defense capabilities” of North Korea, Kim Jong-un insisted.
The White House on Thursday accused Pyongyang of having supplied Russia with ballistic missiles and launch systems used during major attacks in recent days against Ukraine.
“Our information indicates that North Korea has recently provided ballistic missile launch systems and several ballistic missiles to Russia,” said US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
The missiles supplied by Pyongyang were launched by Russian forces towards Ukraine on December 30 and January 2, the American official said.
Historic allies Russia and North Korea are both subject to international sanctions—the former for its invasion of Ukraine and the latter for its banned nuclear weapons and missile programs.
“Seriousness of the situation”
In a photo published by KCNA, Kim Jong-un appears alongside his daughter, Ju Ae, during his visit to the factory, during which the leader insisted on the “seriousness of the current situation” and the need for North Korea to be “firmly prepared for a military confrontation with the enemy”.
The two Koreas began a process of rapprochement in 2018, characterized by three meetings between Kim Jong-un and the South Korean president at the time, Moon Jae-in.
But relations between the two Koreas deteriorated to a low point this year after Pyongyang’s launch of a spy satellite, which prompted Seoul to partially suspend a 2018 military deal aimed at defusing tensions.
At the end of a meeting of the central committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea at the end of December, Kim Jong-un had already ordered the acceleration of military preparations for a “war” which could “be launched at any time” on the peninsula.
In 2023, North Korea conducted a record number of ballistic missile tests, in violation of numerous UN resolutions prohibiting it.
The country also engraved its status as a nuclear power in its Constitution, and successfully tested the Hwasong-18, the most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in its arsenal, capable of reaching the United States.