Kim Jong-Un dismisses the chief of the General Staff
At a meeting of the Central Military Commission, the regime leader fired the chief of the General Staff, General Pak Su Il, and replaced him with General Ri Yong Gil, the official KCNA news agency said.
This medium said that the meeting was focused on “the issue of making preparations for a total war.”
He added that the preparations must “ensure more powerful means of attack” aimed at guaranteeing “a perfect military preparation for a war.”
South Korea and the United States are preparing a major joint military exercise this month, a move the North Korean regime views as a mock invasion.
Pak, who was promoted to the post of army chief last year, may have been sacked because he “did not show sufficient competence in the field of military operations,” said expert Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher at the Sejong Institute.
“Kim Jong Un has shown a tendency to quickly replace officials whom he considers to lack the powers to control and perform their duties,” the expert said.
Mass production of different weapons
Kim called on “all munitions industrial establishments to push for mass production of various weapons and equipment,” according to KCNA.
“He also called for actual war drills to effectively operate newly deployed weapons and equipment to be actively conducted,” he added.
Kim came to the “important conclusion of intensifying the war preparations of the Korean People’s Army in an offensive manner,” this outlet said.
The information released by KCNA appears to be North Korea’s way of responding “to the upcoming joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington,” a senior official at South Korea’s Unification Ministry told reporters.