In state media photos, Kim Jong Un’s head can be seen poking out of a tank
Seoul:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un directed a military demonstration involving a new main battle tank, state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on Thursday, the latest show of force by the isolated country as South Korea and the United States end joint exercises.
KCNA said Kim Jong-un was “very satisfied” with the new main battle tank’s successful demonstration of its striking power in its first performance on Wednesday.
This “training match” is designed to test the combat capabilities of tank crews and familiarize them with combat operations in different tactical tasks.
The report stated that heavy tanks quickly shuttled through the harshest combat environments, struck targets at once with powerful strike force, and broke through solid defense lines with high mobility.
KCNA said the 105th Tank Division, which was declared the winner of the mock battle, was the unit that captured Seoul, the South Korean capital, during the Korean War.
Kim Jong-un attended the event together with Defense Minister Kang Son-nam and other senior officials.
In a photo published by KCNA, the reclusive country’s leader can be seen sticking his head out of the tank, which state media reported he himself drove.
Meanwhile, other photos showed Kim wearing a leather jacket, surrounded by troops and North Korean-flagged tanks firing ammunition in a field.
The mock battle comes as annual joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States end on Thursday. The drills, known as Freedom Shield, were the first held since Pyongyang in November scrapped a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement aimed at easing tensions.
The South Korean Army said the joint forces conducted a joint live-fire exercise at a training base in Pocheon last week as part of the exercise.
The Army said in a statement that the live-fire exercise involved tanks, armored vehicles and FA-50 fighter jets.
North Korea has long denounced such military drills as war rehearsals, while Seoul has described them as purely defensive.
Kim Jong-un last week directed artillery firing drills by the Korean People’s Army and later appeared at the demonstrations.
KCNA said the exercise involved border troops within range of the “enemy’s capital,” referring to Seoul, which has nearly 10 million residents.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
