Seoul, Jan 1 (EFE).- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un urged his country\u2019s army to reinforce its preparation, arguing that the Korean peninsula is closer to an armed conflict that could break out at any time, which underlines the current tension and military escalation in the region.<\/p>
Kim said this during a meeting with the top commanders of the North Korean army held at the headquarters of the Central Committee of the single party on Sunday in Pyongyang, as reported Monday by state news agency KCNA.<\/p>
During the meeting, Kim discussed “the critical security environment of the Korean Peninsula, which is increasingly close to armed conflict as the days go by” and the military movements of the United States “and other hostile forces,” the text added.<\/p>
The leader accused Washington and Seoul of trying to stop the North Korean “revolution” and added that “if the enemy chooses military confrontation and provocation against (North Korea), our army must deal a mortal blow to annihilate them completely.”<\/p>
It comes a day after he said at the close of an important party plenary session, that he thinks reconciliation or reunification with the South is impossible and that his regime would launch three more reconnaissance satellites in 2024 to perfect their capabilities to monitor military movements in their environment.<\/p>
North Korea successfully launched its first spy satellite into orbit at the end of November.<\/p>
After the failure of denuclearization negotiations with Washington in 2019, Pyongyang approved a weapons modernization plan – which includes deploying military satellites and has involved carrying out countless missile tests. They have also rejected the restart of dialog and sought a greater rapprochement with Beijing and Moscow.<\/p>
Meanwhile, Seoul and Washington have reinforced military cooperation with Tokyo and strengthened their deterrence mechanism by multiplying their joint maneuvers and increasingly deploying US strategic assets on the peninsula. EFE <\/p>
asb\/lds<\/p>
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"