Kim Jong Un calls for North Korean military to be constantly ready to smash US-led invasion plot
Kim Jong Un called for his military to be constantly ready for combat to thwart plots to invade his country, as he accused the U.S. of conducting «more frantic» naval drills with its allies near North Korea, state media reported Tuesday.
The U.S. and South Korean militaries are holding joint summer exercises that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.
The allies have insisted the drills are defensive in nature.
Kim said in a speech marking the country's Navy Day that falls on Monday that the waters off the Korean Peninsula have been made unstable «with the danger of a nuclear war» because of U.S.-led hostilities, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
He cited a recent U.S.-South Korean-Japanese summit, the deployment of U.S. nuclear strategic assets and the U.S. drills with its allies.
«The prevailing situation requires our navy to put all its efforts into rounding off the war readiness to maintain the constant combat alertness and get prepared to break the enemy's will for war in contingency,» Kim said.
The U.S.
and South Korean militaries began the 11-day joint drills on Aug. 21. The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield training is a computer-simulated command post exercise.
But they included field exercises this year as well.
North Korea typically responds to U.S.-South Korean military drills with its own missile tests. Its most recent known weapons test was its failed second launch of a spy satellite last Thursday. The day the drills began, KCNA said Kim had observed the test-firings of strategic cruise missiles.
Since the beginning of 2022, North Korea has carried out more than 100 weapons tests, many of them involving nuclear-capable missiles designed to strike the U.S.
