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SEOUL – High military official North Korea (North Korea) said they would expand and intensify military training to ensure the country’s readiness for war. This plan was revealed on Tuesday (7/2/2023), ahead of a massive military parade.
The promise came at a meeting earlier this week that was directly supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and following last week’s staging of joint air drills by South Korea (South Korea) and the United States (US).
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“The agenda ends with the issue of continuously expanding and intensifying the (Korean People’s Army) combat operations and exercises strictly to perfect readiness for war,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The meeting of North Korea’s central military commission comes as commercial satellite imagery shows “extensive parade preparations” underway in Pyongyang ahead of this month’s main state holiday.
North Korea celebrates the anniversary of its armed forces on Wednesday (8/2/2023) and “Day of the Shining Star” on February 16. The latter is the birthday of Kim Jong Il, son of North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung and father of Kim Jong Un.
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Seoul and Washington have moved to step up joint military drills after a year of sanctions-busting weapons tests, angering Pyongyang, which sees them as rehearsals for invasion.
Last week, South Korea and the United States held joint air drills featuring strategic bombers and stealth aircraft, prompting Pyongyang to warn such drills could “stir up an all-out confrontation.”
The joint drills, their first of the year, come a day after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart pledged to enhance security cooperation to counter North Korea’s increasingly belligerent nuclear arsenal.
(esn)
