Lessons from the war in Ukraine… Kim calls for raising the readiness of the North Korean army
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called on senior military officials to strengthen frontline units and turn the southern border into an “impregnable fortress,” according to state media reports on Monday.
Kim delivered these instructions during a meeting held on Sunday with army commanders. A photograph distributed by the Korean Central News Agency showed Kim presiding over the meeting, surrounded by officers in military uniform.
The North Korean leader told military officials that a “major change” would be carried out in an effort to prevent war, according to the agency’s report, adding that commanding officers must elevate their perception of the “sworn enemy,” in a clear reference to the country’s southern neighbor.
The report stated that Kim “set plans to strengthen frontline units as well as other key units from both military and technical aspects, as part of an important decision aimed at more comprehensively preventing the outbreak of war.”
These plans, which experts say appear to be based on developments in Russia’s war with Ukraine, come at a time when relations with South Korea have deteriorated, as Pyongyang has not responded to Seoul’s repeated offers for dialogue.
Kim’s meeting with military commanders coincided with the arrival on Sunday of North Korea’s women’s national football team in the South to participate in the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League, marking the first visit by a North Korean sports team in nearly eight years.
Kim also spoke about the ruling party’s policy to defend the country’s territory by “strengthening frontline units along the southern border and turning the border line into an impregnable fortress,” according to the agency.
He was also quoted as saying that military modernization projects “must be intensified to redefine the concept of operations across all domains.”
Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said the instructions reflect lessons learned from Russia’s war against Ukraine, during which Pyongyang supported Moscow by supplying it with soldiers.
He told Agence France-Presse that “this phrasing reflects an awareness of drone warfare, precision strikes, electronic warfare, and multi-domain battlefields observed in the Ukraine war and Middle East conflicts.”
Kim’s plans also propose “a multi-domain operational concept that extends beyond land, sea, and air to include underwater, space, electronic, and cyber domains.”
