SEOUL, South Korea: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an “epochal change” in war preparations by achieving arsenal production targets during an inspection of a tactical missile system, state media reported on Wednesday.
Analysts say the nuclear-armed North could test and ramp up production of artillery and cruise missiles before sending them to Russia for use in Ukraine.
During his inspection of the tactical missile system on Tuesday, Kim expressed “great satisfaction with the production results recorded by defence industry enterprises” this year, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a cable.
Kim “especially emphasized the need to bring about an epochal change in the KPA’s preparations for war by implementing the 2024 munitions production plans without fail,” he added.
The rocket launchers produced this year are intended for military units in the west of the country, KCNA said.
The largely isolated country has recently strengthened military ties with Russia, and Pyongyang last month thanked Moscow for using its UN Security Council veto to block the reinstatement of a panel of UN experts that monitored international arms sanctions against the Kim regime.
South Korea and the United States have accused North Korea of supplying arms to Russia, despite UN sanctions prohibiting such a move.
Relations between South and North are at odds in years, with Pyongyang declaring South Korea its “main enemy”. It abandoned agencies dedicated to reunification and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial encroachment.
