North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Oversees Surface-to-Sea Missiles Test, Calls For Increase Military Posture

Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, supervised a test of the brand-new surface-to-sea missiles and further warned that the nation would adopt an even more aggressive military posture in the disputed seas, per the North’s state media.
The information shared by the Korean Central News Agency was received a day after South Korea’s military observed that the North was firing cruise missiles into the waters off its port of Wonsan. These launches were the sixth recorded event in the year and added to a provocative run in weapons demonstrations since 2022.

Some specialists have to say that Kim might also seek to dial up the pressure further in an election year in South Korea and the US. There are rising concerns in South Korea regarding a direct, critical military provocation, and a probable zone of conflict may be Korea’s western sea boundary, where many bloody skirmishes have taken place over the past years.

Kim has also supervised the new test launches of the weapon, dubbed the Padasuri-6, and stated that the North would be strengthening the deployment of the surface-to-sea missiles to fend off “adventurous” attempts by South Korea’s navy. He also accused South Korea of violating what he decried as the North Korean territorial waters with the maritime patrols and interdiction of other third-party vessels. He also ordered the navy to strengthen the current defence posture in the seas close to South Korea’s border islands of Baekryeong and Yeonpyeong, where a North Korean artillery bombardment took the lives of four individuals back in 2010.

It is not essential how many lines exist in the (western sea), and there is no reason to thrash out the wrongs or the rights. What is evident is that when the enemy intrudes on the maritime border recognized by the country, they are going to consider it as an encroachment on the sovereignty of North Korea as well as an armed provocation against it, KCNA paraphrased Kim’s quote.

The report has not specified what North Korea considers its maritime border. In a speech delivered at Pyongyang’s parliament on 15 January, Kim reiterated that his nation doesn’t recognize the Northern Limit Line that the U.S.-led U.N. Command outlined toward the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

North Korea has long been insisting upon a boundary which encroaches into the waters that South Korea now controls. Kim informed the Supreme People’s Assembly that if South Korea violates 0.001 millimetres of its territorial land, waters, or air, it is going to be understood as a war provocation.

In the same discussion, Kim further declared that the North had been abandoning its long-term goal of reconciliation with the South and repeated a threat that it would annihilate its enemy with nukes if ever provoked. He also ordered a rewriting of the North Korean constitution to cement South Korea as the most hostile foreign adversary and to specify what North Korea considers as its territory, which is not detailed in the present constitution. Lee Sung Joon, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson, mentioned at a briefing on Thursday that South Korea’s military would respond to any provocation along the Northern Limit Line, which he described as the military’s unaltering sea border.

In early January, both nations fired artillery rounds close to the western sea boundary in exchanges that resulted in no known damages. On Thursday, KCNA reported that Kim examined an unidentified factory producing munitions and instructed the workers to improve the quality and quantity of the weapons. Images indicated that the factory manufactures artillery.

The US and South Korea have reportedly accused North Korea of offering ballistic missiles, artillery shells, as well as other military equipment to Russia to facilitate prolonging its war based in Ukraine, probably in exchange for economic as well as military assistance aimed at bolstering Kim’s forces. In recent times, Kim has been trying to boost the visibility of relationship ties with Moscow and Beijing as he tries to break out of diplomatic isolation and take part in a united front against Washington.

Reference: Aljazeera

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Source: Maritime Shipping News