North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his top general and called for stepping up war preparations “in an offensive way,” including boosting weapons production and conducting more drills, state media reported yesterday.
With a cigarette in hand, Kim was shown talking to a room full of uniformed top generals, and pointing at maps, images in state media showed, while he discussed “major military actions” against South Korea at a meeting of the Central Military Commission.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the agenda of the meeting, which comes just days after Kim inspected key arms factories, was “the issue of making full war preparations” and ensuring “perfect military readiness for a war.”
Photo: AFP / KCNA via KNS
The meeting comes as Seoul and Washington prepare for major joint drills later this month, which the North views as rehearsals for invasion and has repeatedly warned could trigger “overwhelming” action in response.
At the meeting, Kim dismissed Pak Su-il as chief of the general staff, replacing him with Vice Marshal Ri Yong-gil, KCNA said without giving further details.
Pak, who was promoted to the post late last year, might have been dismissed “because he did not demonstrate sufficient competence in the field of military operations,” Sejong Institute researcher Cheong Seong-chang said.
“Kim Jong-un has shown a tendency to quickly replace officials when they are judged to be lacking in the ability to control and perform their duties,” he said.
Ri might be the “most suitable person” to replace Pak, as he previously held the position for a long time, Cheong added.
Kim called for “all the munitions industrial establishments to push ahead with the mass production of various weapons and equipment,” the report said.
“He also called for actively conducting actual war drills to efficiently operate [the] newly deployed latest weapons and equipment,” it added.
Kim reached an “important conclusion on further stepping up the war preparations of the KPA in an offensive way,” KCNA reported, referring to the North’s military.
The KCNA report appeared to be North Korea’s “own response to the upcoming joint military training between Seoul and Washington,” an official from the South Korean Ministry of Unification told reporters.
Referring to photos carried by the North’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper showing Kim pointing to what appeared to be a map of Seoul, he said: “I think he wanted to send a message to the South with a threatening action.”
The meeting also discussed preparations for a massive parade on Sept. 9 to mark the North’s 75th anniversary.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS