North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for his military to be ready for combat to thwart its rivals' plots to invade his country, state media said. This comes as the US, South Korea and Japan held a trilateral naval exercise. The US and South Korean militaries have also been separately holding summer bilateral exercises since last week.
Kim Jong Un said in a speech marking the country's Navy Day that the waters off the Korean Peninsula have been made unstable “with the danger of a nuclear war” because of US-led hostilities, accusing the US of conducting “more frantic” naval drills with its allies and deploying strategic assets in waters around the Korean Peninsula.
Kim Jong Un called US president Joe Biden, South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida “the gang bosses” of the three countries.
“The prevailing situation requires our navy to put all its efforts into rounding off the war readiness to maintain the constant combat alertness and get prepared to break the enemy's will for war in contingency,” the North Korean leader said.
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South Korea expressed deep regret over Kim Jong's use of “very rude language” to slander the South Korean, US and Japanese leaders. North Korea must immediately stop acts that raise tensions with “reckless threats and provocation”, South Korea said.
{{/usCountry}}South Korea expressed deep regret over Kim Jong's use of “very rude language” to slander the South Korean, US and Japanese leaders. North Korea must immediately stop acts that raise tensions with “reckless threats and provocation”, South Korea said.
{{/usCountry}}Last Thursday, North Korea's second attempt to launch a spy satellite into space failed. Since the beginning of 2022, North Korea has carried out more than 100 weapons tests, many of them involving nuclear-capable missiles with experts warning that Kim Jong Un ultimately wants to use its boosted military capabilities to wrest greater concessions from the US.
During his Navy Day speech, Kim Jong Un also said that military units of each service would be given new weaponry in line with the government's decision to expand the operation of tactical nuclear weapons. The navy would become “a component of the state nuclear deterrence carrying out the strategic duty”.