North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered his country’s military, munitions industry, and nuclear weapons sector to accelerate war preparations in response to what he described as unprecedented confrontational moves by the United States, according to state media on Thursday.
Speaking on the policy directions for the new year at a key meeting of the country’s ruling party on Wednesday, Kim also said Pyongyang would expand strategic cooperation with “anti-imperialist independent” countries, news agency KCNA reported.
North Korea has been strengthening ties with Russia, among others, as Washington accuses Pyongyang of supplying military equipment to Moscow for use in its war with Ukraine, while Russia provides technical assistance to the North.
“He (Kim) set forth the militant tasks for the People’s Army and the munitions industry, nuclear weapons, and civil defense sectors to further accelerate the war preparations,” KCNA said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol visited a frontline military unit in the eastern county of Yeoncheon on Thursday to examine its defense posture and advocated for quick retaliation if North Korea provoked.
“I urge you to immediately and firmly crush the enemy’s will for a provocation on the spot,” Yoon said to the soldiers.
North Korea’s Kim also laid out economic ambitions for the new year, calling it a “decisive year” to complete the country’s five-year development plan, according to KCNA.
“He … clarified the important tasks for the new year to be dynamically pushed forward in the key industrial sectors,” and called for “stabilizing the agricultural production on a high level.”
North Korea faces food shortages, worsened by COVID-19 border controls
In recent decades, the North has experienced severe food shortages, including famine in the 1990s, sometimes as a result of natural disasters. Border controls during the COVID-19 epidemic, according to international experts, harmed food security.
Due to favorable meteorological conditions, North Korea’s crop output is expected to improve year on year in 2023. However, a Seoul official stated that the amount is still far short of what is required to address the country’s chronic food shortages.
The 9th plenary meeting of the Workers’ Party of Korea’s 8th central committee began on Tuesday, capping up a year in which the isolated North codified nuclear policy in its constitution, launched a spy satellite, and fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile.
In recent years, the days-long gathering of party and government officials has been used to make major policy announcements. Kim’s address was previously released by official media on New Year’s Day.
