North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for an increase in missile production to help secure “overwhelming military power” and be ready for war, state media KCNA said yesterday, as South Korea and the US gear up for annual military drills.
Kim gave the order as he visited key munitions factories that produce tactical missiles, missile launch platforms, armored vehicles and artillery shells on Friday and Saturday.
His field inspection was the latest in a string of visits to arms factories, where he ordered mass production of weapons, and came days before South Korea and the US are to begin annual military drills, which Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal for war.
Photo: AFP / KCNA via KNS
Kim set an “important goal to dramatically increase” missile production capacity to meet the needs of the expanded and strengthened frontline military units, KCNA said.
“The qualitative levels of war preparations depend on the development of the munitions industry, and the factory has a tremendous responsibility in accelerating our military’s war preparations,” he was quoted as saying.
At other plants, Kim inspected and drove a new utility combat armored vehicle, and praised recent progress in modernizing production lines for large-caliber multiple rocket launcher rounds, KCNA said.
There was a “very urgent need” to “exponentially increase” the production of such rockets to strengthen frontline artillery units, he said.
“Our army must thoroughly secure overwhelming military power and solid readiness to handle any war at any time, so that the enemy does not dare to use force and would be annihilated if it does,” Kim said.
South Korea and the US yesterday said that they would stage the Ulchi Freedom Guardian summer exercises from Monday next week to Aug. 31 to improve their ability to respond to North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats.
North Korea has denounced the allies’ military drills as a rehearsal for nuclear war.
This year’s drills are to be held on the “largest scale ever,” mobilizing tens of thousands of troops from both sides, as well as some member states of the UN Command, for about 30 field training program, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
“The exercises are an essential element in maintaining robust combined defense posture in case of emergency — absolutely necessary to respond to the growing military threat from North Korea,” Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Colonel Lee Sung-jun told a news conference.
The US has accused North Korea of providing weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, including artillery shells, shoulder-fired rockets and missiles.
North Korea and Russia have denied any arms transactions.
The leaders of South Korea, the US and Japan are also set to discuss security cooperation over North Korea, Ukraine and other issues when they gather for a trilateral summit on Friday at Camp David in Maryland.
KCNA separately yesterday said that Kim visited “typhoon-hit areas” after Tropical Storm Khanun swept over the Korean Peninsula last week, flooding farmland.
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS