According to state media, Kim Jong Un instructed the military of North Korea to step up preparations for a “real war” as he supervised a fire assault exercise with his daughter by his side.
Kim and his daughter were captured in pictures on Thursday watching an artillery squad launch a volley of missiles while donning matching black jackets.
Yesterday, the South Korean military claimed to have discovered one ballistic missile launch and to be investigating the potential of additional launches from the same location.
The Hwasong unit, which the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) claimed is trained for “strike missions,” was seen firing at least six missiles simultaneously in photos published on Friday.
In the West Sea of Korea, the unit “fired a powerful volley at the designated waters,” according to KCNA.
Kim instructed the troops to be ready for “two strategic objectives, namely, first to deter war and second to take the initiative in war,” according to KCNA, while observing the exercises.
Such units should be “steadily intensifying various simulated drills for real war in a diverse way in different situations”, he added.
The practice was conducted as South Korea and the US were getting ready to begin their biggest joint exercises in five years on Monday.
The nuclear-armed North is performing increasingly provocative banned weapons tests, while the South is responding by increasing security cooperation with Washington. Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their worst points in decades.
