As North Korea unveiled its new battle tank, Kim Jong Un was literally on top. The occasion was a training match involving the tank units of the Korean People’s Army.
The match was aimed at strictly inspecting tankmen’s actual combat capabilities and making them familiar with combat methods on different tactical missions, state agency KCNA reported.
Kim is said to have driven a tank himself, watched the proceedings with great satisfaction. The spectacular appearance of the tanks seemed to mirror the bravery and audacity of the Korean People’s Army, he said.
The new tanks, according to Kim, have excellent striking power and mobility which were successfully demonstrated. We can be proud that the Korean People’s Army is equipped with the most powerful tanks in the world, he declared.
An invincible and iron-willed brilliant commander is how the state media described Kim and all that he did there were labelled as revolutionary activities.
Kim had a photo session with the 105th tank division that won the match. All military commanders present there pledged loyalty to him.
There’s need to organise intensive exercises simulating an actual war to enhance combat capability, he said, asking tankmen to be mentally strong.
The tank training exercises perhaps are North Korea’s response to the US-South Korea military drills that began 10 days ago. The North sees such moves as a threat to its sovereignty. Its defence ministry had earlier warned of responding with what it called responsible military activities.
A week ago, Kim presided over artillery firing drills as well. The exercises were aimed at strengthening combat mobilisation readiness and actual war capability.
Just a month ago, Kim ordered his troops to prepare for war as he blamed the United States for heightened tensions in the Korean peninsula.
Kim Jong Un will continue to pursue nuclear and conventional military capabilities that threaten the United States and its allies, says a report by the US intelligence which was released earlier this month. There will be periodic aggressive actions as Kim tries to reshape the regional security environment.
So going forward will North Korea’s military pose a serious threat to the United States. It will, the report says, by its investment in niche capabilities designed to provide Kim with options to deter outside intervention.
North Korea’s proximity to America’s rivals such as Russia and China remains a concern. The United States sees this as a means by Kim Jong Un to increase financial gains, diplomatic support and defence cooperation.
Late last year, Kim hosted high-level Chinese and Russian delegations in Pyongyang. He also made his first trip abroad since the onset of the pandemic to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. There’s buzz that North Korea is helping Russia by giving munitions for the war in Ukraine.
Kim has made his nuclear and missile ambitions very clear and America believes he will push ahead with those. He remains committed to developing capabilities that can challenge regional missile defence, diversify options to deliver nuclear warheads and enhance second-strike capabilities.
In January this year, Pyongyang launched what it claimed was an intermediate-range ballistic missile equipped with a hypersonic re-entry vehicle that can be manoeuvred.
Kim will keep prioritising efforts to build a more capable missile force designed to evade US and regional missile defences, for which it imports stuff primarily from Russia and China, the US intelligence report says.
And the American intelligence report says Pyongyang’s cyber forces are fully capable of achieving strategic objectives against diverse targets, including those in the United States.
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