IRIA News

North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un has ordered his soldiers to complete preparations for war during a military demonstration on March 14, 2024. Kim also joined his troops on the ground for training as he test-drove the new battle tank.

This is the third time that the North Korean leader has addressed his troops to increase war readiness in the last 11 days, since the start of the U.S.-South Korea’s joint military drills. Kim Jong Un has termed the U.S.-South Korean military exercises as a rehearsal for invasion.

Last week, North Korea’s Ministry of Defense issued a warning of “responsible military activities” in response to the joint training between South Korea and the U.S. The number of training exercises between the U.S. and South Korea has been intensifying, with the most recent session including computer-simulated command post training and 48 various field exercises.

According to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim observed live-fire “training march” exercises from a field command post and drove the new military tank following the live-fire exercise.

Kim expressed “great satisfaction” with the tank and its striking power in its inaugural performance display. The new tank was first unveiled in 2020 and this was the first time that the tank was used for a live-fire exercise. Kim told his troops to bolster their “fighting spirits” and complete “preparations for war”, KCNA said in its report.

During the military drill, a training match was conducted between the large combined tankmen’s units of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), while commanding officers of the tank and mechanized units of the KPA observed the training.

North Korean state media KCNA statement highlighted, “The match fully demonstrated the perfect capability for actual war and matchless fighting spirit of the gallant tankmen who have grown to be strong combat ranks equipped with high mobility and striking power and the reliable performance of the tanks, one of the powerful means for fighting war and their full combat preparedness.”

The KCNA statement added that after the training, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had a photo session with the tankmen of the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su Guards 105th Tank Division who won the match.

According to KCNA, Kim expressed expectation that “the brave tankmen of the KPA would always remain loyal to the struggle to prepare themselves to be one-match-for-a-hundred iron fists with a firm will to annihilate the enemy and thus fully demonstrate as ever the valiant spirit of the powerful iron-clad ranks.”

The KCNA did not provide any details on the new tanks. Some analysts and observers suggest that the new tank is equipped with a missile launch tube, a weapons system previously utilized by the former Soviet Union in the 1970s. Given the economic and trade restrictions that Pyongyang is facing, it remains uncertain whether the tank can be produced on a large scale.

Observers speculate that Kim does not intend to mass produce the weaponry for practical use but instead aims to leverage the enhanced weapons arsenal to secure concessions from the U.S., such as relief from international sanctions imposed on North Korea. It is expected that North Korea will expand its testing endeavors and escalate its aggression rhetoric this year, particularly as South Korea prepares for parliamentary elections in April and the U.S. gears up for a presidential election in November.

The increase in North Korea’s military readiness came after a speech by Kim in January, during which he vowed to amend the constitution to abandon the country’s longstanding pursuit of peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula and instead designate South Korea as its “unchanging principal enemy.”

In his speech, Kim emphasized the necessity for the new constitution to explicitly state that North Korea would absorb and subdue the South in the event of another conflict.