North Korea Leadership Watch

Research and Analysis on the DPRK Leadership

KJU Inspects “Fire Assault Drill” of KPA Artillery unit

Kim Jong Un and Kim Ju Ae (right) inspect an artillery company in South P’yo’ngan Province on 10 March 2023 (Photo: KCNA).

Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n; KJU) inspected a Korean People’s Army [KPA] Hwasong artillery company and observed a “fire assault drill” on 9 March (Thursday).  Among those in attendance with KJU was his daughter Kim Ju Ae (Kim Chu-a’e), Chief of the KPA General Staff Gen. Pak Su Il (Pak Su-il), KPA Navy Commander ADM Kim Myong Sik (Kim Myo’ng-sik), KPA Air Force Commander Gen. Kim Kwang Hyok (Kim Kwang-hyok), V Army Corps Commander Col. Gen. Choe Tu Yong (Ch’oe Tu-yo’ng) and other senior command staff.

Photos: KCNA/Rodong Sinmun

KJU was briefed about the training and political education of the artillery unit, its order of battle and its equipment.  He “highly appreciate that all the service personnel are intensifying their combat and political training in a stand-by posture with high class consciousness, transparent will to deal with the enemy and resolute viewpoint on struggle and steadily perfecting their operational capability to successfully carry their important military tasks.”  He toured different elements of the artillery company and was learned about “the war preparations and military service” of the KPA servicemembers.  KJU “examined the actual war response posture of the 8th fire assault company under the unit charged with striking the enemy’s operation airport in the direction of the western front.”

Photos: KCNA/Rodong Sinmun

Photos: KCNA/Rodong Sinmun

The artillery company “fired a powerful volley at the targeted waters in the West Sea of Korea set under the simulated conditions of the major elements of the enemy operation airport, thus confidently demonstrating its capability to counter an actual war.”  Kim Jong Un expressed “great satisfaction over the results of the drill” and “highly appreciated that the Hwason artillerymen were powerfully and strictly ready to respond to actual war.”

Photos: KCNA/Rodong Sinmun

KJU remarked that the “results of the censorship training clearly showed the important sense of mission that the army should be ready to fight any time and be responsible for an actual action rather than words and our clear, practical and unshakable will to take military actions.”  He emphasized the “need to always stay alert for all sorts of frantic war preparation moves being committed by the enemy recently and maintain and steadily train the powerful capability to overwhelmingly respond to and contain them all the time so as to thoroughly deter the danger of a military clash on the Korean Peninsula.”

Kim Jong Un stressed that the “fire assault sub-units should be strictly prepared for the greatest perfection in carrying out the two strategic missions, that is, first to deter war and second to take the initiative in war, by steadily intensifying various simulated drills for real war in a diverse way in different situations.”  According to DPRK state media, “all the combatants of the unit are full of their will to carry out their weighty mission at the very time when the enemy’s moves for violating the sovereignty of our state and threatening its security cross the red line set by the DPRK by further accelerating the building of a powerful war readiness.”

Photos: KCNA/Rodong Sinmun

Information

This article was written on 14 Mar 2023, and is filled under 2nd Academy of Natural Science, 8th Party Congress, Artillery Corps, Ballistic Missile Guidance Bureau, Central Committee, Central Military Committee, Col. Gen. Choe Tu Yong, Col. Gen. Pak Su Il (GSD/MPS), colonel general, corps command, corps commanders, DPRK External Relations, DPRK military engagement, Events Management Section, Five Year Plan (2021), General Affairs, gsd, gsob, Guard Command, Guidance Tours, ideological slogans, III Army Corps, Inter-Korean Relations, Kim Chong-un inspections, Kim Family, Kim Jong Un Visits, Kim Jong-un, Kim Ju Ae, KJI-Ko Yong Hui Family, KJU Personal Secretariat, Korean People's Air Force, Korean People's Air Force [KPAF], Korean People's Army Air Force, Korean People's Army Supreme Command, Korean People's Internal Security Forces, Korean People's Army (KPA), Korean Workers' Party (KWP), KPA basic party organizations, KPA External Relations, KPA General Logistics Department, KPA General Political Bureau, KPA General Political Department, KPA General Staff, KPA infantry corps, KPA Large Combined Units, KPA Southwestern Front Command, KPA Strategic Rocket Force Command, KPA supernumerary organizations, KPA Supreme Command, KPA V Army Corps, KPA West Sea Command, kpif, Machine Building Industry Department, military security command [msc], ministry of people's security, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of the People's Armed Forces (MPAF), Missile Guidance Bureau, Namp'o WPK Committee, Navy Command, nuclear weapons, Office of Military Officers, On the Spot Guidance, Operations Bureau Department 10, Pak Su Il (MPS/corps), Political Bureau, SCUD, Second Economic Committee, Second Economy Commission, Secretariat, short-range ballistic missiles, State Affairs Commission, VADM Kim Myong Sik (KPAN), West Sea KPN District.

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