NKorea: Kim Jong Un Leads Artillery Drills

Facts

• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has guided live-fire long-range artillery drills involving border sub-units with a range capable of striking 'the enemy's capital,' state media reported on Friday.¹
• This comes after South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff claimed that Pyongyang had test-fired multiple rocket launcher shells and self-propelled artillery shells toward the Yellow Sea on Thursday.²
• The military exercises reportedly took place on March 7 in Onchon County on the west coast, despite claims of operations in border regions, and involved at least 20 240 mm rocket launchers and at least 32 self-propelled guns mounted on older trucks.³
• Kim Jong Un had reportedly overseen war games simulating the takeover of a South Korean border guard post a day earlier, with soldiers firing rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank guided missiles.⁴
• On Friday, the South Korean Air Force carried out an 'elephant walk' drill at the Suwon base involving 33 aircraft, including eight F-43 Phantom jets that are set to be decommissioned in June.⁵
• Last week, Seoul and Washington began their annual Freedom Shield joint exercise, which Pyongyang has denounced as provocative and reckless. In January, Kim declared South Korea as the North's 'primary foe.'⁶

Sources: ¹Korea Herald, ²NBC, ³Newsweek, ⁴NK News, ⁵Korea Times and ⁶CNN.

Narratives

• Pro-North Korea narrative, as provided by KCNA Watch. In the face of the latest spate of anti-North Korea moves by the US and its puppet regime in Seoul, Pyongyang has no other option than to heighten its war deterrence. Therefore, military exercises to boost combat readiness and capabilities to protect the nation are vital for the North.
• Anti-North Korea Narrative, as provided by Hudson. As much as North Korea wishes to flex its military potential and threaten war with bombastic rhetoric, it would be best for Pyongyang not to push this too far. Its current rate of military drills will be near-impossible to sustain, and the North is well known to suffer extreme economic hardship. Dangerous propaganda and military activity are merely a mask for a fragile and vulnerable nation.

Predictions