North Korea's Kim Orders Sharp Increase in Missile Production, Days before US-South Korea Drills

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again toured major munitions factories and has ordered a drastic increase in production of missiles and other weapons, state media said Monday, as the South Korean and US militaries announced they will begin major drills next week to hone their joint capability against the North's evolving nuclear threats.
Kim’s push to produce more weapons also comes as US officials believe Russia’s defense minister recently talked with North Korea about selling more weapons to Russia for its war with Ukraine, The Associated Press said.
The Korean Central News Agency said Kim visited factories producing tactical missiles, mobile launch platforms, armored vehicles and artillery shells on Friday and Saturday.
During a stop at the missile factory, Kim set a goal to “drastically boost” production capacity so the facility can mass produce missiles to meet the needs of front-line military units, KCNA said.
“The qualitative level of war preparations depends on the development of the munitions industry and the factory bears a very important responsibility in speeding up the war preparations of the (North) Korean People’s Army,” Kim said, according to the report.
Visiting other factories, Kim called for building more modern missile launch trucks and said there is an urgent need to boost production of large-caliber multiple rocket launcher shells “at an exponential rate,” the report said. Kim also drove a new utility combat armored vehicle, KCNA said.
Kim has been focusing on enlarging his nuclear and missile arsenals since his high-stakes diplomacy with then-President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019. Since the start of 2022, Kim’s military has conducted more than 100 missile tests, many of them in the name of warning the US and South Korean over their expansion of joint military training exercises. Many experts say Kim eventually aims to use his modernized weapons arsenals to wrest US concessions, such as sanctions relief, whenever diplomacy resumes with Washington.
North Korea could perform more weapons tests soon as the US and South Korea are set to start their summer military exercises next Monday. North Korea calls the US-South Korean training a practice for an invasion. The allies say they have no intentions of attacking North Korea.
KCNA quoted Kim as saying North Korea must have “an overwhelming military force and get fully prepared for coping with any war” with the power to “surely annihilate” its enemies.
The US-South Korean drills, called Ulchi Freedom Shield, is a computer-simulated command post exercise. During this year's exercise that is scheduled to run through until Aug. 31, the allies said they'll also conduct large-scale field training events, which will reportedly be the largest of their kind in recent years.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson, Lee Sung Joon, told reporters that this year's UFS drills are aimed at further strengthening the allies' response capabilities by performing exercises based on scenarios that reflect North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile capabilities and other regional security situations. Col. Isaac L. Taylor, a spokesperson for the US military, told the same news conference that the drills are designed to be “a tough and realistic exercise."
Earlier this month, the White House said US intelligence officials had determined that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke to North Korean officials during a visit to Pyongyang last month about increasing the sale of munitions to Moscow for its war in Ukraine.
North Korea has denied American claims that it shipped artillery shells and ammunition to Russia. But the North has publicly supported Russia over the war and hinted at sending workers to help rebuild Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine.
Kim has been trying to beef up ties with China and Russia in the face of US-led pressure campaigns over its nuclear program and pandemic-related economic difficulties.

Hurricane Helene caused at least 52 deaths and billions of dollars of destruction across a wide swath of the southeastern US as it raced through, and more than 3 million customers went into the weekend without any power and for some a continued threat of floods.

Helene blew ashore in Florida's Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday packing winds of 140 mph (225 kph) and then quickly moved through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, uprooting trees, splintering homes and sending creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams.

Western North Carolina was essentially cut off because of landslides and flooding that forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads. Video shows sections of Asheville underwater.
There were hundreds of water rescues, none more dramatic than in rural Unicoi County in East Tennessee, where dozens of patients and staff were plucked by helicopter from the roof of a hospital that was surrounded by water from a flooded river.
The storm, now a post-tropical cyclone, was expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said. Several flood and flash flood warnings remained in effect in parts of the southern and central Appalachians, while high wind warnings also covered parts of Tennessee and Ohio.
At least 48 people have been killed in the storm; among them were three firefighters, a woman and her one-month-old twins, and an 89-year-old woman whose house was struck by a falling tree. According to an Associated Press tally, the deaths occurred in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

Moody’s Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage.

North Korea's Kim Orders Sharp Increase in Missile Production, Days before US-South Korea Drills