North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw paratroop drills aimed at showing his soldiers’ ability to occupy an “enemy region at a stroke,” state media said yesterday, days after the most recent annual US-South Korean military exercise.
Pyongyang has shown particular sensitivity toward the joint air force exercises conducted by Washington and Seoul, with experts saying that the North’s air force is considered to be the weakest link in its military.
Pyongyang’s latest training overseen by Kim was “aimed at inspecting the paratroopers’ readiness to be mobilized for any operational plan in surprise wartime circumstances” and judging their capabilities, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency reported.
Photo: AFP / Korean Central News Agency via KNS
The troops demonstrated “their perfect combat capability to occupy the enemy region at a stroke once an order is issued,” it added.
Images released by Pyongyang’s official Rodong Sinmun showed Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, using binoculars to observe the drills, standing beside her father and senior military officials.
In another image, troops on the ground get into position as scores of paratroopers can be seen drifting to the ground from above in the background.
The latest report from Pyongyang comes just days after it announced that Kim drove a “new-type main battle tank” that the North said was the “most powerful in the world.”
Meanwhile, Kim used a Russian luxury limousine gifted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kim’s sister Kim Yo-jong said yesterday.
Last month, Putin sent Kim Jong-un a high-end Aurus Senat limousine, which he had shown to the North Korean leader when they met for a summit in Russia in September last year.
Observers said the shipment contravened a UN resolution aimed at pressuring the North to give up its nuclear weapons program by banning the supply of luxury items to North Korea.
In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo-jong said that her brother used the limousine for the first time at an open event on Friday.
“The special function of the private car is perfect and can be thoroughly trusted,” she said, without specifying. “Kim Jong-un’s using of the private car sent by the president of the Russian Federation as a gift is a clear proof of [North Korea]-Russia friendship, which is developing in a comprehensive way on a new high stage.”
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