North Korea’s Kim calls for training world’s ‘strongest’ military

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged his military to train to become the strongest in the world at a two-day meeting of company commanders in Pyongyang, state media said Saturday. Kim’s call for what he dubbed a “Korean-style military revolution” came the same week Seoul’s military proposed talks to clarify the border after an explosion inside the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) further strained inter-Korean ties.

Seoul and Pyongyang remain technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The Pyongyang event, held Thursday and Friday, was aimed at developing a plan “to train the strongest armed forces in the world,” Kim said, according to the official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA). He also called for “all the companies” of the North’s army to be “turned into a strong elite unit in military and technical aspects and consolidated into perfect combat forces”.

KCNA said it was the first gathering of “the entire army” since a February party congress where Kim had called for stronger conventional forces and reaffirmed plans to develop nuclear weapons and missiles. North Korea has also tested a slew of weapons recently, including a “new-type” precision-guided torpedo system and an intermediate-range hypersonic missile, both of which were said to use AI technology.

Despite long-running UN sanctions, North Korea has enshrined its status as a nuclear-armed state in law, with its regime repeatedly declaring its atomic arsenal permanent and irreversible. The North has also become a key Russian ally since it launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, sending troops to support Moscow’s war effort in return for economic benefits and military technology.

South Korea proposed on Friday military talks with North Korea to clarify their border and restore communication channels, after Seoul blamed the DMZ blast that injured South Korean soldiers on North Korean landmines, a claim Pyongyang strongly rejected. Pyongyang, which also previously rejected Seoul’s demand for an apology over the explosion, has not responded to Friday’s proposal. c