‘New firepower units’ position following border threat
Kim Jong Un had issued an order to fortify the border.
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea has moved new units into “firing positions,” the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un said Wednesday, days after Pyongyang warned it was considering deploying additional strike means to its border with South Korea.
Tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang have soared since the South last month blamed an explosion inside the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two countries on landmines laid by North Korea, an accusation it has rejected.
“Our military leadership underlined the need to make those rogues aware that our new firepower units have taken their firing positions,” Kim Yo Jong said, according to state media.
Her statement came a day after Seoul warned of a “firm” response to further North Korean provocations.
She added that Kim Jong Un had “issued an order to fortify the border with an enemy state to be eternally impregnable.”
The statement came as the Korea Central News Agency said the armed forces’ Marshal Pak Jong Chon had inspected “pivotal positions” on the border, stressing to troops it was “time to organize the firepower strong enough to strike terror into the enemy’s heart.”
“If the enemy troops make a provocation actually threatening the safety of our service personnel... The border forces of the DPRK must take very proficient, specialized and overwhelming military action,” he said, using the acronym for the North’s official name.
Serious development
Hong Sung-pyo, senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs, told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday that the claimed troop movements should be taken seriously.
“These are small military positions — essentially guard posts or fighting positions for units armed with individual firearms — and it looks like North Korea has been moving them forward,” he said.
“Of the developments we have seen so far, this appears to be among the most serious. North Korea has conducted various demonstrations of its firepower, but this now appears to be about operational deployment.”