Any one conversant with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un knows that he is a staunch lover of his country’s military weapons and seeks to bolster it time and again.
Pyongyang has also doubled-down on weapons tests, including launching a string of cruise missiles, testing an “underwater nuclear weapon system”, and firing a solid-fueled hypersonic ballistic missile.
The international community cannot afford to dismiss these activities as mere sabre-rattling, as they signify a deliberate effort by North Korea to enhance its military capabilities.
State media reported on Thursday, February 15, 2024, that Kim Jong Un oversaw the test firing of a “new-type surface-to-sea missile,” as part of a purported fresh drive to ramp up maritime border security.
The test was Pyongyang’s sixth missile launch event of the year, adding to a provocative run in weapons demonstrations since 2022.
The report said that Kim supervised the “evaluation test-fire of new-type surface-to-sea missile Padasuri-6 to be equipped by the navy,” and expressed “great satisfaction over the results of the test-fire.”
The missiles hit their intended targets after flying over the East Sea for 1,400 seconds.
The East Sea is known as the Sea of Japan internationally.
The North Korean leader also gave orders to his military to strengthen its readiness in the waters north of Yeonpyeong Island and to the west of the Korean peninsula, in the region of a “Northern Limit Line” (NLL).
Kim also accused South Korea of frequently violating his country’s sovereignty by insisting on the NLL, the maritime demarcation line between the two Koreas, and conducting maritime patrols and inter-diction of third-party ships.
Waters near the NLL, which was drawn up by the United States-led United Nations Command at the end of the Korean War in 1953, have been the site of previous clashes between the two Koreas.
In 2010, North Korea torpedoed a South Korean warship in the Yellow Sea, killing 46 Sailors, and fired a barrage of artillery shells at Yeonpyeong Island, killing four others.
According to the state agency, Kim referred to the de facto border as a “ghost one without any ground in the light of international law.”
“It doesn’t matter how many lines exist in [North Korea’s] western sea, and what’s clear is that if the enemy violates what we consider as our maritime border lines, we will take that as a violation of our sovereignty and an armed provocation.”
Kim Jong Un
Kim also pledged that Pyongyang would thoroughly defend its maritime sovereignty “by force of arms and actions, not by any rhetoric.”
Kim Inspects Munitions Factory
In a separate report, it was disclosed that Kim also inspected a “major” munitions factory and learned in detail about the modernisation of production.
During the visit, he stressed the factory’s role in bolstering North Korea’s armed forces and laid out tasks to improve the quality of munitions and increase production as “required by the prevailing situation and the developing revolution.”
Kim’s visit to the munitions factory comes as the U.S and its allies have accused North Korea of trading arms with Russia.
The White House said last month that Russia had recently used short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) sourced from North Korea to conduct strikes against Ukraine, citing newly declassified intelligence.
Kim in recent months has been boosting the visibility of his ties with Moscow and Beijing as he tries to break out of diplomatic isolation and join a united front against Washington.
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