N Korea Leader Urged Combat Readiness

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un urged the army to ensure its combat readiness ahead of US-South Korea military exercises that see an annual spike in tensions on the divided peninsula.

N Korea LeaderAccording to state media, Kim Jong-Un stated in his speech to the ruling party’s Central Military Commission [CMC], that the army had to be “fully ready to react to any form of war to be ignited by the enemy”.

The CMC meeting followed on the heels of a North Korean military drill — personally overseen by Kim – that simulated an attack on a frontline South Korean island.

Further to the point, Kim spoke of the need to simplify and reorganize the Korean People’s Army [KPA] machinery as he stressed the need to “focus all its efforts on rounding off combat readiness”.

The report said the commission also discussed a “radical turn” in national defense operations, but again there were no details.
In his speech, Kim, who was chairman of the CMC, also noted deviations in the work of the KPA over the past year.

Although the report did not elaborate, it said Kim insisted on a “strategic line to be always held fast.”
North Korea had conducted three nuclear tests, and recently declared a fourth.
The United States and South Korea launched their annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle military exercises which was a three-day joint naval drill.

However, Pyongyang saw them as provocative rehearsals for invasion and that the country would take every measure to demonstrate its might as long as threats from the US persist.