North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has urged his army’s top brass to boost the country’s “strategic forces” and put them on high alert, as reports that he may be seriously ill have yet to cease completely.
The call-to-arms was made at a high-profile gathering of military commanders and members of North Korea’s security services, state news agency KCNA reported on Sunday.
Presided over by Kim Jong-un, the meeting focused on “the persistent military threats, big or small, of the hostile forces” and ways to “reliably contain these,” the agency reported without directly quoting the commander-in-chief.
Ramping up the army’s firepower and the “strike ability” of its artillery units was one of the matters discussed by military leaders, with the talks proceeding to other, much more powerful means of warfare.
New policies were put forth at the meeting to further increase the nuclear war deterrent of North Korea, and put the strategic armed forces on a high alert in line with the general requirements of the building and development of the armed forces of the country.
KCNA didn’t specify the time and date of the meeting. North Korea itself conducted a series of missile launches earlier this year, testing what appeared to be short- and medium-range missiles as well as rocket artillery shells.
The revival of testing activity came on the heels of stalling denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington, in which the latter demanded that North Korea give up nuclear devices first before getting any concessions from the US.
Kim’s reported participation at the “enlarged meeting” with army and security chiefs came several weeks after he officially opened a plant in South Pyongan province in early May. Both appearances this month further erode the gossip – which has still not completely vanished from media coverage – that he might be seriously ill or incapacitated by botched cardiovascular surgery.
Those rumors have been actively spread by the Western media, even though they lacked any solid proof and were substantiated only with accounts from various “intelligence” and “defector” sources.
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