North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, together with his daughter, led the exercises of airborne troops of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) on Friday, the Central Telegraph Agency (KCNA) reports.
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Kim Jong-un was also accompanied to the exercise by the Secretary of the Party’s Central Committee and Deputy Chairman of the Party’s Central Military Commission, Park Chong-chon, and was met on the spot by KPA commanders, including DPRK Defense Minister Kang Sun-nam, Chief of the KPA General Staff Ri Yong-gil and others.
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“The exercise is aimed at testing the readiness of airborne troops to mobilize under any operational concept in an unexpected wartime situation, assessing their practical skills applied to suitable methods of conducting various combat operations,” KCNA reported.
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From KCNA photographs it is clear that Kim Jong-un, together with his daughter, went up to the observation post, where he received a report on the plan for the exercises of the airborne troops and supervised the exercises; they watched the soldiers together through binoculars, and then went down to look at the shooting up close and greet the military.
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During the exercise, an airplane flew over the training ground, an assault force landed on a position of a mock enemy and captured a hypothetical object.
The North Korean leader was pleased with the exercises and praised the fighters, saying that the soldiers were clearly prepared “not only ideologically and politically, but also military-technically and physically.” Kim Jong-un noted that the main factor for the success of the exercises is the high qualifications of the personnel responsible for them and ordered more “intensive” military exercises to “comprehensively strengthen the combat capability” of the army, continuously studying modern and scientifically proven methods of exercises in accordance with the requirements of the time.
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Kim Jong-un also posed for photographs with participants in the exercises.
