SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un joined troops training on a new tank model and drove one himself, state media reported Thursday, as his rivals South Korea and the U.S. wrapped up their annual military exercises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the third time Kim was reported to have observed military exercises since the start of the 11-day South Korean-U.S. drills, which he views as rehearsals for an invasion. That\u2019s a less provocative option than missile tests. North Korea has intensified launches since 2022 and ramped up belligerent rhetoric this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the tank drills Wednesday, Kim praised the country\u2019s latest tank as \u201cthe world\u2019s most powerful\u201d and told his troops to bolster their \u201cfighting spirits\u201d and complete \u201cpreparations for war,\u201d according to the official Korean Central News Agency. The other two drills he inspected recently were dedicated to\u00a0artillery firing\u00a0and\u00a0maneuvering exercises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tank was first unveiled during a military parade in 2020, and its rolling during Wednesday\u2019s drill indicates that it\u2019s ready to be deployed, South Korean experts say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photos of the tank released by North Korea show it has a launch tube for missiles, a weapons systems the former Soviet Union already operated in the 1970s. The new tank could pose a threat to South Korea, said Yang Uk, an analyst at Asan Institute for Policy Studies, but it remains to be seen whether it can be mass produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The North\u2019s Defense Ministry last week threatened\u00a0\u201cresponsible military activities\u201d\u00a0in reaction to the South Korea-U.S. military drills, which involved a computer-simulated command post training and 48 kinds of field exercises, twice the number conducted last spring. The U.S. and South Korea have been expanding their training exercises in a tit-for-tat response to the North\u2019s weapons testing spree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Concerns about North Korea\u2019s military preparations have deepened since Kim vowed in a\u00a0speech in January\u00a0to rewrite the constitution to eliminate the country\u2019s long-standing goal to seek peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula and cement South Korea as its \u201cinvariable principal enemy.\u201d He said the new constitution must specify North Korea would annex and subjugate the South if another war breaks out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kim\u2019s moves signal \u201cNorth Korea\u2019s fundamental change on its South Korea policy, beyond just rhetoric,\u201d as the North\u2019s previous push for inter-Korean unity had allowed it to make a steadfast call for the removal of U.S. troops in South Korea, a senior South Korean presidential official told a small group of reporters Monday. He requested anonymity, citing the delicate nature of the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Observers say Kim likely wants to use his upgraded weapons arsenal to win U.S. concessions like extensive relief of international sanctions on North Korea. They say North Korea is expected to extend its testing activities and ramp up warlike rhetoric this year as South Korea holds parliamentary elections in April and the U.S. a presidential election in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe South Korean-U.S. training is over, but the North\u2019s isn\u2019t over yet,\u201d Yang said. \u201cThey won\u2019t just stand still … they\u2019ve been talking about war,\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 North Korean leader Kim Jong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3217,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3215\/revisions\/3217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}