Iran Press/Asia: Kim Jong-un “stressed the need to further increase the capability of the defense units in the forefront area and on the western front to carry out combat tasks and keep full combat posture to cope with any emergency,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Friday.
He noted "Genuine peace and security of the country are guaranteed only by the strong physical force capable of defending its sovereignty,” it said, adding Kim "set forth important tasks for further increasing the strike ability."
Kim’s call for "full combat posture" came a day after he observed the test fire of two long-range ballistic weapons that were initially presumed to be short-range missiles.
South Korea's military said on Thursday, North Korea has fired at least one unidentified projectile, adding yet another complication into the stalled negotiations with the United States and peace talks with South Korea.
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At a White House event on Thursday, however, the US president, Donald Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with Pyongyang’s missile tests, saying, “Nobody's happy about it.”
“We'll see what happens," he told reporters. "I know they want to negotiate; they're talking about negotiating. But I don't think they are ready to negotiate."
The North had repeatedly warned that it was considering ending talks on denuclearization and resuming its nuclear and missile tests over what it described as “the gangster-like stand" of the US.
The North has slammed the South for ramping up its participation in 'war games' with the US, warning last week that a “corresponding response” was imminent in the face of such 'acts of perfidy.' The US and South Korea began two weeks of joint air force exercises last Monday, a more low-key version of the annual Max Thunder drills.
North Korea conducted 17 missile tests in 2017, provoking international outcry when several of the missiles passed over Japan. Last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un began dismantling the North’s missile and rocket test site, a process that has reportedly been reversed in the wake of the failed Hanoi nuclear talks and promised to stop testing ICBMs. 101/201
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