Ajit Karn
Seoul: State media reported that Kim Jong Un ordered the North Korean military to intensify preparations for a “real war” as he supervised a fire assault exercise with his daughter in attendance.
Photographs taken on Thursday showed Kim and his daughter wearing identical black jackets as they witnessed an artillery unit launch a salvo of missiles alongside uniformed officers.
The South Korean military announced yesterday that it had detected one ballistic missile launch and was analysing the possibility of multiple launches from the same location.
Photographs published by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Friday showed at least six missiles being simultaneously launched by the Hwasong unit, which is trained for “strike missions,” according to the agency.
According to KCNA, the unit “launched a potent salvo at the targeted waters in the West Sea of Korea.”
According to KCNA, while inspecting the exercises, Kim instructed the soldiers to be prepared for “two strategic missions, namely, first to deter war and second to take the initiative in war.”
Such units should “gradually intensify various simulated exercises for actual conflict in a variety of scenarios,” he added.
The exercise took place as South Korea and the United States prepared to launch their greatest joint exercises in five years on Monday.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in decades, as the nuclear-armed North conducts increasingly provocative and illegal weapons tests and the South increases its security cooperation with the United States in response.
Attack airfields
South Korean intelligence believes that Ju Ae, Kim’s alleged second child, made another high-profile appearance during the exercise.
According to some specialists, she is Kim’s legal heir. The North Korean media have only identified her as his daughter, with no other information, including her identity, released.
She sat next to Kim as he inspected the drill and was estimated to be around 11 years old.
President of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, Yang Moo-jin, told AFP that it appears Ju Ae’s participation in events related to North Korea’s nuclear or missile development has been regularised.
Pyongyang has long maintained that its nuclear weapons and missile programmes are for self-defense, while characterising US-South Korean military exercises as invasion rehearsals.
According to KCNA, Thursday’s exercise was conducted “under the simulated conditions of the main elements of the hostile airport operation.”
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According to experts, North Korea’s aviation force is the weakest component in its military, and the exercise highlights the strategy to compensate.
“North Korea’s most recent exercises, like many of its previous ones, are designed to prevent South Korean (warplanes) from taking off,” An Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who directs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told AFP.
