North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says now is the time to be more prepared for war than ever as he visited the country’s main military university, state media reported
.He made his remarks on the same day as rival South Korea’s parliamentary elections on Wednesday, in which the governing party suffered a major defeat, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Thursday.
“Now is the time to be more thoroughly prepared for a war than ever before,” the North Korean leader said at the Kim Jong Il University of Military and Politics, citing the “uncertain and unstable military and political situation” around.
North Korea has, in recent months, stepped up its accusations against South Korea and its ally, the United States, for what it called provoking military tensions by conducting “war manoeuvers” and holding military drills with greater intensity and scale.
In March, Kim also ordered heightened war preparations after inspecting troops at a major military operations base in the country’s west.
North Korea “should be more firmly and perfectly prepared for a war, which should be won without fail, not just for a possible war”, he added.
Since the election of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in 2022, tensions between the two Koreas have been intensifying, with the North declaring the South as its “principal enemy”.
In response to Yoon’s hardline stance towards the North, Kim ordered the scrapping of agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over “even 0.001mm” of territorial infringement.
Aljazeera
