North's Kim calls his new tanks 'most powerful in the world'

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un touted his military’s new line of battle tanks in a Thursday state media report covering the regime’s ongoing training drills.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un drives one of the new battle tanks unveiled by Pyongyang's state media in this photo released on Thursday by the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party. [NEWS1]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un touted his military’s new line of battle tanks in a Thursday state media report covering the regime’s ongoing training drills.

Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted Kim as calling the new tanks the “most powerful in the world,” adding that he expressed “great satisfaction over the new battle tank’s successful demonstration of its very excellent striking power and maneuverability.”

In photos released by the ruling Workers’ Party official newspaper Rodong Sinmun, Kim can be seen driving one of the new tanks himself during an inspection of the Korean People’s Army tank units on Wednesday.

The North Korean leader’s visit to the tank units took place during what state media called a “training match” designed to test their combat capabilities.

The new tank appears to be an upgraded version of a similar vehicle displayed for the first time during a military parade in Pyongyang in October 2020 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party.

In his remarks, Kim said that drills that emulate actual wartime scenarios are necessary so tank crews “can carry out any combat mission promptly and accurately in a contingency.”

State media reported last week that the North Korean leader directed artillery firing drills involving long-range frontline units capable of striking the “enemy’s capital.”

The report on the North Korean tank drills came the same day South Korea and the United States wrapped up their 11-day Freedom Shield joint exercise.

According to South Korea’s military, the North attempted to disrupt Global Positioning System (GPS) signals around South Korean islands in the Yellow Sea for three days beginning on March 5, the day after Freedom Shield began.

Pyongyang has regularly condemned joint drills by Seoul and Washington as rehearsals for an invasion of its territory and responded to such exercises with its own firepower demonstrations or missile launches.

A K-1A2 battle tank from the South Korean Army's Capital Mechanized Infantry Division fires a round during a field drill involving U.S. military engineers in Pocheon, Gyeonggi, on Thursday, the last day the allies' Freedom Shield joint exercise. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The South Korean Army said Thursday that it carried out live-fire tank drills alongside U.S. military engineers at Seungjin Fire Training Field in Pocheon, Gyeonggi, near the inter-Korean border.

The field drill involved 300 service members, K-1 A2 main battle tanks and K-21 infantry fighting vehicles from the South Korean Army and M1150 mine-clearing vehicles from a combined South Korea-U.S. engineering unit, according to the Army.

The Army said the K-1A2 tanks and K-21 armored vehicles practiced firing at targets representing enemy assets as South Korean and U.S. engineers cleared a path for troops to advance and secure the enemy’s position.

The previous day, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said the country’s special operations units must be equipped and ready to “swiftly eliminate” North Korea’s leaders if Pyongyang reignites hostilities against Seoul.

In comments later released by the ministry, Shin told special ops soldiers that they are a “key component of the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) plan” and that they “must become the world’s strongest special operations unit to swiftly eliminate the enemy’s leadership” during his visit to the Army Special Warfare Command in Icheon, Gyeonggi.

South Korean and U.S. special ops units have been carrying out combined strike drills to bolster their combat capabilities since March 8, according to the ministry.

KMPR is one of the three pillars of the South Korean military's so-called “tri-axis” defense strategy, which aims to preempt and deter serious attacks by North Korea.

While the KMPR strategy seeks to neutralize the North’s command and control centers, including its leadership, should the regime attack South Korea, the other two components — Kill Chain and Korea Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) — focus on preemptively striking the source of a potential attack and intercepting incoming missiles.

According to the Defense Ministry, Shin also visited Command Post Theater Air Naval Ground Operations (CP Tango), a nuclear weapon-proof bunker complex that serves as the command center of joint operations, to highlight the importance of training during the Freedom Shield exercise to counter the North’s evolving military threats.

“Through this exercise, [we] must master how to operate systems that can neutralize the North’s nuclear and missile arsenal before they can be fully used,” Shin said, adding that the allies “must also advance [their] operational capabilities to the next level to overwhelm the enemy across all domains.”

His comments echoed remarks by United States Forces Korea Commander Gen. Paul LaCamera, who told journalists during a rare media tour of CP Tango on Saturday that “all of the information” regarding the threat posed by the North and other adversaries “has to be brought together” so that the allies can tackle security challenges across multiple domains.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]