Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
22-03-2025
PYONGYANG: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test-firing of the country’s latest anti-aircraft missile system on Thursday, state media KCNA reported on Friday.
Kim thanked what was referred to as a research group for the system. The test-firing showed the system was “highly reliable” and its combat response was “advantageous,” KCNA said.
The test conducted by North Korea’s Missile Administration was to examine the performance of a system whose production has already begun, according to the report.
KCNA did not specify where the test was held, but said Kim was joined by members of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.
Seoul and Washington wrapped up their latest annual joint military drills known as Freedom Shield on Thursday. They say such exercises are defensive but Pyongyang has long demanded a halt to US-South Korea joint exercises, branding them a prelude to an invasion.
In a statement carried by KCNA, a spokesperson for North Korea’s defence ministry criticized the latest joint drills by South Korea and the United States, calling them “reckless” and “a rehearsal of war.”
All options for containing the US and South Korea were being considered, including the use of the “most destructive and deadly military means”, the statement said, while urging the militaries of both countries to stop their acts.
However, South Korea and the United States wrapped up on Thursday 11 days of annual joint military drills known as Freedom Shield, which included staging a river-crossing exercise close to the heavily militarized border with North Korea.
The militaries of the two countries reaffirmed their alliance and strengthened their defensive posture during the drills, US Forces Korea and South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The river-crossing exercise, which was held in Yeoncheon, an area near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, involved some 600 troops, as well as 100 armoured vehicles and aircraft, according to South Korea’s defence ministry.
“This training provided an opportunity for the brigade soldiers to experience the importance of the ROK-US alliance and maximize the interoperability of river-crossing equipment,” Major Jung Byung-hyuk of the South Korean army said after the river-crossing exercise.
ROK refers to the Republic of Korea, South Korea’s official name.
South Korean and US troops had built a 180-metre (196.85 yards) floating bridge in order to allow armoured vehicles to cross a river, according to the ministry.
“Regardless of politics, when asked the soldiers in these formations both US and ROK are standing side by side ready to support the US-ROK alliance,” Lieutenant Colonel Brent Kinney of the US Army said when asked about the current political situation in South Korea.
South Korea has been suffering its worst political crisis in decades after President Yoon Suk Yeol briefly imposed martial law in December. The Constitutional Court is due to rule on whether to uphold his impeachment by parliament in coming days.
Pyongyang has long demanded a halt to US-South Korea joint exercises, branding them a prelude to an invasion.
North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles earlier this month, hours after condemning the South Korean and US militaries for launching the drills that the North called a “dangerous provocative act.” (Int’l News Desk)
