North Korean leader Kim Jong Un conducted an inspection of a tank unit that attacked Seoul in the Korean War, state media said Monday (25/3), with the North Korean leader also calling for more preparations for combat.
Relations between the Korean states are currently at their lowest point in years, with Kim's military carrying out a series of banned weapons tests in recent times, including launching ballistic missiles and holding ground tests of a “new type” of hypersonic missile engines.
Kim visited Ryu Kyong Su's Seoul Guards 105th Tank Division on Sunday. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the visit, with images in state media showing Kim apparently reviewing plans for an attack on South Korea.
“This division was the first to be assigned to Seoul and raised the flag of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on the puppet state's Capitol building,” KCNA reported, referring to North Korea by its official name.
The Tank unit “showed outstanding performance in various battles during the past War of Liberation of the Fatherland,” KCNA added, referring to the 1950-1953 Korean War. The war itself ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, which means the two countries are technically still at war.
Kim oversaw the Tank Unit's drills and expressed “deep satisfaction” that the tank crews were well prepared and showed “a strong will to annihilate the enemy,” KCNA reported.
He also called for more “ideological education” to support the soldiers to continue their good performance “completing war preparations and improving combat capabilities.”
Food shortages are reportedly widespread in nuclear-armed North Korea, and Kim also visited the canteen of the Tank Unit and saw the soldiers' meals.
Supervisors should “always pay more attention to further improving the soldiers' diets,” Kim said, to “ensure regular supplies of meat, vegetables and various other complementary foodstuffs at the right time.”
To date, North Korea, a nuclear-armed nation, has declared South Korea its “primary enemy,” abolished institutions dedicated to reunification and propagated such plans, and threatened war for any territorial violation “even as small as 0.001 mm.” .”
South Korea is one of the key regional allies for the US, which has about 27,000 troops stationed in the country to help protect it from attacks by North Korea.
North Korea this month warned that South Korea and the US would pay a “fair price” for their recent joint military drills, and later announced that Kim had guided an artillery unit they said had the capability to attack the South Korean capital. (ns/rs)