Pyongyang: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for greater war-fighting capabilities against the United States and South Korea, according to state media on Thursday, as the defence ministry vowed to respond to ongoing military drills between its two major rivals, which Pyongyang views as an invasion rehearsal. North Korea has reacted to previous South Korean-US military exercises with missile and other weapons tests.

During a visit to a Western operational training base on Wednesday, Kim said the military must “steadily intensify the actual war drills aimed at rapidly improving its combat capabilities for perfect war preparedness,” the official Korean Central News Agency said. Kim guided maneuvers of military units at the site and said the heightened readiness is required to “contain the constant threat of the enemies with overwhelming force”.

The North Korean leader also inspected the field training of troops at the major military operations base and said the military must “dynamically usher in a new heyday of intensifying the war preparations in line with the requirements of the prevailing situation”, according to KCNA.

US-South Korean military drills

His latest demand came two days after North Korea’s Defense Ministry threatened to conduct unspecified ”responsible military activities” because South Korean-US military drills were allegedly getting more undisguised in their attempt to invade the North. The two allies began their annual computer-simulated command post training and a variety of field exercises on Monday for an 11-day run. 

This year’s drills were to involve 48 field exercises, twice the number conducted last year. The two countries have said their drills are defensive in nature as North Korea continues to accelerate his weapons development and make provocative threats of nuclear conflict with the United States and its Asian allies. North Korea has tested multiple long-range cruise missiles and a new solid-fuel intermediate-range missile in January.

Tensions in the Korean Peninsula

In 2024, North Korea performed six rounds of missile tests. The US and South Korean forces, along with Japan, responded by expanding their training exercises. Animosities on the Korean Peninsula remain high in the wake of North Korea’s barrage of missile tests since 2022. 

Experts say North Korea likely believes a bigger weapons arsenal would increase its leverage in future diplomacy with the United States. They say North Korea would want to win extensive sanctions relief while maintaining its nuclear weapons. North Korea is expected to further raise tensions with more provocative weapons tests as both the US and South Korea go for elections.

South Korean experts and officials say Kim’s weapons drive has put further strain on a broken economy, decimated by decades of mismanagement and US-led sanctions over his nuclear ambitions. Kim has declared a departure from the long-standing goal of peaceful unification with South Korea, further instructing a revision of the North’s constitution to designate the South as its most hostile foreign adversary. 

While North Korean cruise missile activities aren’t directly banned under UN sanctions, experts say those weapons potentially pose a serious threat to South Korea and Japan. They are designed to be harder to detect by radar, and North Korea claims they are nuclear-capable and their range is up to 2,000 km, a distance that would include US military bases in Japan. 

(with inputs from agencies)

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