Kim demands that North Korea’s navy maintain a state of “constant combat alertness,” which entails “radically” modernizing its arsenal of weapons and apparatus.
State media KCNA reported on Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for bolstering the nation’s naval forces after accusing the US of making the area near the Korean peninsula “the most unstable waters with the danger of a nuclear war.”
The “gang bosses” of the US, Japan, and South Korea announced routine joint military exercises, according to Kim in a speech to commemorate Navy Day, according to KCNA. This statement appears to be a reference to their Camp David summit on August 18th.
The leaders of the US, South Korea, and Japan met for the first time on their own and decided to strengthen their military and economic ties in order to project unity in the face of China’s rising power and the North’s nuclear threats.
Kim was quoted as saying, “The waters off the Korean Peninsula have been reduced to the world’s biggest war hardware concentration spot, the most unstable waters with the danger of a nuclear war, due to the reckless confrontational moves of the US and other hostile forces.”
South Korea and the United States last week began the Ulchi Freedom Shield summer exercises, designed to enhance their joint responses to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. Pyongyang has long denounced the drills as a rehearsal for war.
Kim said North Korea requires its Navy to maintain war readiness, a “constant combat alertness,” and called for “radically” modernising its weapons and equipment.
“He stressed that the DPRK navy would become a component of the state nuclear deterrence carrying out the strategic duty,” according to KCNA.
