North Korean Leader Orders War Preparations After US-South Korea Military Drills

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for war readiness, according to a report in the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Military drills are believed to be taking place in a military operations base in the western part of the country.

According to the report, the drills have included the storming of border posts through the use of troops and helicopters. KCNA released pictures of the border post which look similar to the ones that South Korea has on its side.

The North Korean leader has called for his army “to usher in a new heyday of intensifying the war preparations in line with the requirements of the prevailing situation,” the news agency has quoted him as saying.

South Korea has not immediately commented on the recent developments.

Kim has recently made it clear that North Korea’s policy towards its neighbour is undergoing a change. He stated in January in a speech that his country’s long-stated policy of peace reunification was over and declared South Korea as the North’s “principal enemy.”

South Korea and the US began Freedom Shield drills which will begin on March 4 and will go on till March 14. The drills according to AP consisted of live-firing, bombing, air assault and missile interceptions. 

The drills which are annual were halted in 2018 by then US president Donald Trump as he held a series of talks with Kim. The talks did not make any headway and ended in 2019.

North and South Korea’s relations have become worse since an inter-military agreement signed in 2018 was scrapped in 2023. According to an editorial in the Diplomat the agreement ensured that both sides would “completely cease all hostile acts against each other’ by implementing measures that included ending military drills near the border, limiting live-fire exercises, imposing no-fly zones, and maintaining hotlines.”