North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a tank exercise and encouraged his armored forces to sharpen war preparations in the face of growing tensions with South Korea, the North’s state media said Monday.
Kim made those comments Sunday while visiting his top tank group, the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su Guards 105th Tank Division. The unit's name marks how it was the first North Korean military unit to reach the South Korean capital in 1950 when a North Korean surprise attack triggered a war that dragged on for almost four years.
Photos published by North Korean state media showed Kim talking with military officers at an observation post and tanks with North Korean flags rolling through dirt, with at least one of the vehicles carrying a sign that read: “Annihilate US invaders who are staunch enemies of the Korean people!”
The official Korean Central News Agency said Kim praised the 105th Division as a model for his entire army “in the ongoing struggle ... for finishing war preparations.” He also issued instructions to improve the unit’s combat preparations and upgrade its equipment, the report said.
Jeon Ha Gyu, spokesperson of South Korea’s Defense Ministry, said the South Korean and US militaries were closely monitoring North Korean military activities but did not provide a specific assessment of the details reported by North Korean state media.
Kim earlier this month supervised a training competition between his military’s tank units, which was won by the 105th Division. The event on March 13 also featured a new North Korean battle tank meant to underscore Kim’s efforts to strengthen his conventional military capabilities along with his arsenal of missiles.
Last week, North Korea conducted a live-fire drill of large-size multiple rocket launchers designed to target Seoul and also claimed a successful engine test in its efforts to build a new intermediate-range hypersonic missile, which would be aimed at remote US targets in the Pacific, including the military hub of Guam.
Meanwhile, North Korea said Monday that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has proposed a summit with Kim, as the North urged Japan to show sincerity toward improving bilateral ties and realizing their countries' first summit in about 20 years.
In the statement carried by state media, Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, said Kishida used an unspecified channel to convey his position that he wants to meet Kim in person at an early date.
Kim Yo Jong said there will be no breakthrough in North Korea-Japan relations as long as Kishida’s government raises the issue of Japanese citizens abducted to North Korea in past decades and opposes what she described as the North’s “exercise of sovereign rights,” apparently referring to the North’s weapons testing activities.
“If Japan continues to try to interfere with our exercise of our sovereign rights, and continues to be preoccupied with the abduction issue, of which there is nothing more to resolve or investigate, then the prime minister’s (offer for talks) will inevitably be labeled as just an attempt to improve his popularity,” she said.
